


Don't Worry Darling (i'm here with you)

by NeverApollogise



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, But He Gets Better, Dead May Parker (Spider-Man), Enemies to Lovers, Harley is an Asshole, Hurt Peter Parker, Kinda, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:53:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 36,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24378286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverApollogise/pseuds/NeverApollogise
Summary: When May Parker dies in a tragic accident, Peter doesn't know how to cope.He's lost so much in his life and this seemed to be the last strawHe tries to keep up his walls and keep looking out for the little guy  but Spider-Man can't always solve everythingMr Stark eventually finds out and insists that Peter come and live with him, for once things seem to be looking upThat is until Harley comes along.
Relationships: Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Comments: 128
Kudos: 486





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is straight-up not having a good time

The wind blew harshly against the spider suit as Peter sat on the edge of the building. If he had his mask off, you'd be able to see the tear tracks running down his face and the brokenness in his eyes. You'd think that he would have been used to death by now; first his parents, then Uncle Ben and that's not even mentioning all the deaths he'd witnessed as Spider-man, but when the police came knocking at his door to tell him that his aunt had died in a tragic accident and that they were so very sorry for his loss.

Well, that was the final straw.

There was no fancy funeral where all May's friends and relatives got together and cried over their mutual loss, there was no service afterwards where they would share stories, laugh and slowly start to accept the fact that she was gone. No there was none of that, they simply didn’t have the money. A quick burial and some cheap flowers were all that May got to commemorate the life she had lived. She deservedmuch more.

Peter didn't know what to do anymore, he had some money saved up from what May had left behind and his internship, so he used that to buy a storage room. There was no way he could afford to keep paying for his apartment, so he packed up all of May's things and then some of his and moved in there. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be living in some dingy storage room and he knew that if Mr Stark found out he’d move him into the tower immediately but Peter didn’t want the pity, Mr Stark had his own family to look out for.

So here he was sat on the top of his old apartment building saying a final goodbye to the place, that brought him so many happy memories which hurt too much to think about now before he had to go back to being Queens friendly neighbourhood Spider-man because that was what mattered, he had to protect the little guy. No matter how hard he was hurting on the inside there were more important things than him. Peter's head shot up as he heard a scream coming from nearby, Karen locked onto the location

“It’ll take you approximately 2 minutes to get to the site of danger Peter” Karen informed him

“Thanks Karen,” Peter stood up getting ready to leap off the building but before he did he stopped and whispered “bye May, I love you” into the night, hoping that wherever she was she heard him. With that Peter swung off the building to save someone's life, it didn't matter that he also needed saving.

Things continued like this for weeks, Peter threw himself into schoolwork and spidermanning. Anything to distract himself. He still hadn't told Ned and MJ about his aunt and he wasn't planning on, Mr Stark didn't even know. Everything was fine, he still had the internship, he still had school and the academic decathlon team, he still had Spider-man and that was fine.

\--------------------

An alarm blared out of Peter's phone, he shifted on his makeshift bed for a while before groaning loudly and getting up. School was always horrible but especially when you had a Spanish test first period. Peter shoved on some jeans and a Stark Industries sweater before making his way around the room he lived in to get to his school bag.

The room was small, not much bigger than his old bedroom. On one side of the room were tons of boxes full of his aunt’s old clothes, photos, or those hideous snow globes she used to collect any time her and Peter would go somewhere. There was some of Peters stuff too, old Lego models that he and Ned built ages ago, Star Wars figurines that he had nowhere to display anymore. There was a battered mattress shoved in one corner, May’s old comforter and pillows strewn across it and a smaller box which held whatever food Peter could get his hands on that wasn’t going to go off.

He’d gotten a lot skinnier since May died a lack of food and constantly swinging around New York fighting bad guys would do that to you. Sometimes he was scared Mr Stark would notice and try to get involved so he’d tried to eat as much as he could, his metabolism also didn’t help much.

Peter quickly grabbed his bag and left out the door, making sure no one saw him and to bolt it on this way out.

The walk to school was uneventful and Peter kept his head down as he made his way through the busy streets of Queens. Everything seemed louder than usual today, but Peter chalked it up to him not getting enough sleep lately. He quickened his pace and soon made it to the gates of Midtown High, he still had to make it to ten minutes till homeroom so he slowly walked up the steps of the school and through the doors. As he opened the door, he saw Ned standing by his locker talking to Betty, so he decided to walk over to them.

"Hey, Ned!" Peter tapped on his shoulder and Ned spun around to face him.

"Omg, Peter you'll never believe what I got this weekend" Ned spoke fast and moved his hands excitedly. He and Peter had been best friends since they both joined Midtown on a scholarship four years ago. They were now in their last year and still going strong, of course, they couldn't go without adding MJ to the group. As scary and headstrong as she was, they loved her both and they wouldn't be complete without her sarcastic comments and glares from across the room. 

"Don't tell me you got the new lego death star set!" Peter quickly matched Ned's enthusiasm already thinking about how fun it would be to build.

"Yes! you should come round this weekend and we can build it. that is if you don't have internship stuff."

"That'd be great dude, and I'm free this weekend, me and Mr Stark just finished a project, so I don't have much work right now."

"I don't know why you call him mister stark still, he's practically your dad at this point."

"w-what!?!" Peter’s face went bright red.

"I mean, he cares about you a lot dude, you're at the tower like all the time, you even have movie nights and stuff!! honestly, you're so lucky." 

"Yeah, I guess... but that doesn't mean he's my dad or anything! like he's my boss more than anything, I work for him, so I have to be at the tower." 

"Whatever you say dude," Ned turned to shut his locker then faced peter again "come on we better get to homeroom, the bell is gonna go soon."

Both boys gathered their stuff and made their way to homeroom when they got in Peter scanned the classroom and spotted MJ sitting near the back reading The Colour Purple, she had recently made it her mission to read every book that the school deemed inappropriate. The other day she had given a lecture to the librarian about why they should allow banned books in school and unsurprisingly got him to agree, she could be scary like that. He and Ned walked over and sat down in the two empty desks beside her.

"Hey losers," she said without looking up.

"Hey MJ!" 

MJ continued to read her book and Ned started to ramble about Star Wars and how cool the weekend was gonna be, Peter slowly relaxed at the familiarity of it all and before he knew it he had gotten through half the school day, his Spanish test flew by and all other classes were uneventful and usual. It wasn't their fault he already knew how to do all the work though.

Peter walked into the canteen and slumped down into the seat next to Ned, put his head on the table and tried to block out some of the noise from around him. 

“Hey man, you alright?” Ned asked him, looking worried, he’d noticed that Peter hadn’t been himself a couple of weeks ago, but he seemed to be getting better so didn’t want to pry.

“Yeah I’m fine just tired and it's pretty loud in here.” his head started to pound as he rested his forehead against the cold plastic of the canteen tables and slowly he felt his eyes start to droop and eventually close as he fell asleep.

\--------------------

A shrill ring and someone shaking his shoulder made Peter startle out of his sleep,

“Come on dude, get up. There’s only one lesson of the day left.” Ned spoke softly, trying not to startle him even more.

“Thanks man.” Peter blinked a couple of times then stood up and started walking with Ned towards Mr Harrington’s class. Suddenly the hairs on the back of Peter’s neck stood up and he felt someone reach for him from behind, he tried to move out the way but was too late as he felt himself get pushed against the wall

“Hey, penis!” yelled Eugene ‘flash’ Thompson, the school’s resident asshole and Peter’s tormentor since he joined in freshman year.

“Please get off me Flash.” Peter didn’t want to have to deal with him today but he’d rather him than Ned or anyone else

“Since when did you get to tell me what to do Parker?” He gave Peter a particularly hard shove into the wall before skulking off to his class. Peter sank towards the floor and caught his breath

“You okay man?” Ned held his hand out, Peter grabbed on and pulled himself back up “I don’t know why you don’t just defend yourself like we both know you could.”

“You know why I can’t Ned, now come on, I want to get this day over and done with”

\--------------------

Peter quickly ran home after school so he could drop his bag off and quickly rush all his homework before grabbing his spider suit and going on patrol for the night. Once he’d finished Peter slipped into the suit and left his room. He climbed up the side of the building, leapt off and started swinging, this was Peter’s favourite thing about Spider-man, yeah saving peoples lives and helping old ladies cross the road is great and all but the freedom he felt while swinging through the skyscrapers of New York was unbeatable. It helped him to forget, to clear his mind from everything and just focus on right now.

Peter was out as Spider-man more often than not nowadays, He managed to convince Ned to hack into the suit so Mr Stark wouldn’t know he was patrolling more than what he and his aunt had agreed, it’s not like it’d make much difference now anyway.

Patrol was slow today, he’d helped a woman carry her groceries home, got a few cats out of trees, and stopped some petty theft. He’d stopped off at Delmar’s to get something to eat and was now sitting on top of a building thinking about turning in for the night when he heard a scream coming from a nearby alley. Quickly he got up, pulling the bottom of his mask down and jumping off the building towards the scream.

He landed at the foot of a dark alley, quietly he surveyed the area and saw a dirty looking man holding a young woman against the wall of the alley. Peter crawled up the wall closer to the man and he tried to see if the man had any sort of weapon on him but couldn’t get a clear enough view so he just crept closer until he was above the woman.

“Hey man, don’t you have something better to be doing than ruining people’s evenings?” He quipped in true Spider-man fashion and jumped down off the wall.

“Oh Spider-man, thank god, please help me! I have a nephew at home, he has no one else, I can’t leave him alone.” The woman babbled as tears ran down her face. Peters's heart hurt listening to her pleas, his mind went back to months ago when he was sitting on top of his old apartment building, too numb to cry over his aunt’s death anymore.

“Shut up, you whiny bitch!” the man slapped her round the face and tightened his grip, “now why do you have to go and ruin all the fun we were having Spidey?”

Peter went into autopilot, quickly webbing the front of the man’s shirt and pulling him off the lady “quick get out of here!” he yelled at her, she stood there frozen for a couple of seconds, watching the man scramble to get the webbing off of him, before sobbing out a thank you and running towards the mouth of the alley. Peter relaxed slightly thankful that he had saved her and that another boy wasn’t going to lose the only family they had left. Fatigue was slowly catching up to him and memories of his aunt were flooding back, the pain her felt from not being able to save her weighed him down daily and right now it felt heavier than ever.

He knew he shouldn’t let his guard down in a fight, he should have webbed the man up and got out of there sooner, but it was simply too late. Before he knew it, the man was swinging his arm towards him in a crazed fashion. A Blunt pain spread through the side of his body, he shot webs towards the man and pinned him against the wall. Then he took off but could only get so far before he collapsed on top of a nearby building. He looked towards the source of the pain and saw a knife stuck in his side. He decided to pull the knife out and quickly web round the wound so it would hopefully hold the blood. His suit was stained a darker red than usual and it was spreading further into the fabric as he lost more blood. Peter tried to calm his breathing, if he could just get home, he’d be able to deal with this. He went to stand up but didn’t get far before his legs buckled.

“Peter I have to inform you that you are losing quite a lot of blood and I would suggest that you call Mr stark for assistance” Karen’s voice floated from the speakers in his mask.

“No no no no we don’t need to call Mr Stark, it's fine, I’m fine” He was panicking now if Karen told Mr Stark then Mr Stark would want to tell May but May wasn’t here anymore and that would open up a whole load of other problems.

“Peter you are not fine, you have lost a lot of blood and your heart rate is higher than average. If you continue at this rate you will end up collapsing”

“If I can just get off this roof and swing back home then I can fix myself up, there’s no need to tell Mr Stark. I can deal with it.” Peter rambled on while trying to lift himself up, after a few tries he managed to stand up. His head was throbbing and he couldn’t focus his vision, he stumbled forward slightly trying to balance himself but it was all too much. The pain had spread further and felt like it was burning his insides, his ears were ringing sharply and his vision was fading in and out of darkness.

He fell onto the floor his body limp with more blood seeping out of his side and onto the roof next to him He felt the darkness getting closer and closer until his eyes drooped shut and it finally encased him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! quarantines got me bored as fuck so I decided to write this  
> hope you guys like it and feel free to leave a comment or kudos if you want  
> also, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes. I did read it like 4 times but dyslexia is a bitch 
> 
> I'm gonna try to update this weekly :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is having a better time and Tony is a huge softy

A soft continuous beeping slowly woke Peter up. It took a few seconds for him to fully open his eyes but when he did, he was confused.

_Where am I?_

He looked around, surveying the room he was in. It was all white, there were a few chairs on the right side of his bed one of which was taken up by a sleeping Tony Stark, his hair was messy, he had dark bags under his eyes and even while sleeping he managed to look worried.

_If Mr Stark is here then I must be at the tower’s med bay, which means he must have come to get me after I passed out._

Images from last night flashed through Peter’s mind, saving that woman, getting stabbed and nearly bleeding out, alone on a roof in New York. Tears started to gather in the corners of Peter’s eyes, he worked hard to choke back a sob and stay quiet. But he wasn’t quiet enough. Mr Stark’s head shot up, he looked around for what had woken him up but he settled when his eyes landed on Peter half sitting up in the bed with tears running down his face. Quickly he moved to sit on the edge of the bed next to him.

“Hey Pete, you gave me quite the scare back there. But you’re alright now, you’ll be okay.” Tony put his arms around Peter and pulled him closer.

“I’m sorry Mr Stark, I tried to fix it myself but I couldn’t get away, I should have been paying attention. You told me never to let my guard down while in a fight and I did” Peters breathing was getting heavier and tears were now falling freely down his face, he tried to wipe them away and get off the bed “But I can leave now, I’ll be fine. I’m sorry you had to come and get me”

Tony was used to Peter’s whole ‘I can do things by myself’ spiel but this was different, the boy seemed genuinely distressed about more than what had happened the previous night. Something was going on and Tony wanted to help and comfort him, but he wasn’t sure how. So, he just did what he does when Morgan is upset or hurt. He pulled Peter further into him and ran his hand through his hair gently.

“It wasn’t your fault Pete, don’t blame yourself,” Peter was relaxing slightly in Tony’s arms but the thought of Tony finding out about everything that had happened in the past months was looming over his head “now I haven’t been able to get a hold of May yet so I assumed she was working a nightshift or something, but I’m sure she’ll be worrying about you so we can give her a call as soon as you are out this bed.”

And suddenly it was as if Peter was stuck under a building again, he couldn’t breathe and he felt trapped in Tony’s arms. Sobs wracked his body as he tried to pull away from Mr Stark, the lights were too bright and the beeping was too loud. He needed to get out of here and back home, away from Tony and the tower, back to where he was alone.

“Hey, hey Pete you need to calm down,” Tony tried to soothe him but it wasn’t working. At this rate Peter was going to work himself into a sensory overload. “shit, Friday can you dim the lights please and get rid of any unnecessary noise in the room”

“Yes boss.” Friday lowered the lights and the beeping was now barely noticeable, Peter had calmed slightly at the reductions but his breaths were still short and shaky. “It’s alright Peter, you’re alright. I’ll get May here as soon as I can but right now it’s just you and me bud, so I need you to calm-”

“May’s dead!” Peter’s yell startled and confused him; what did he mean she was dead? “she’s dead, she’s dead, she can’t come, she’s not coming!” Peter was hysterical now and Tony didn’t know what to do, he was so confused but he needed to help Peter now and ask questions later.

“Shhh Pete, it’s okay, you’ll be okay. I’m here and I’m not gonna leave.” Tony repeated phrases like that until eventually Peter had worn himself out and fallen back to sleep. Tony lifted Peter off him and laid him back down onto the bed. He quietly got up and went to leave the room but not before sending the sleeping boy one more glance, he’s got a lot of questions but for now he was going to let the boy sleep, he needed it.

\--------------------

“Boss Mr Parker is awake and asking for you” Friday’s voice cut through the music Tony was listing to. He put away the hologram for the repairs to the spider suit and left the lab, heading towards the med bay.

When he entered Peter was sitting up in the bed staring down at his lap, his head shot up when he heard Tony come through the door and he looked at him nervously.

“Hey Mr Stark.” Peter had gone back to staring at the bed and playing with his fingers.

“How are you feeling kid?”

“I’m fine, a bit of a headache but other than that good, I’m pretty sure my sides all healed so I can probably be out of your hair soon.”

“Hey no, none of that. We’ve gotta talk Pete, do you remember what you told me before you went to sleep?”

Peter remembered exactly what he’d said and now he’d have to tell Mr Stark everything and he’ll probably be pitied and seen as a charity case. He may have an internship here but that doesn’t mean Mr Stark actually cared about him, he has his own family, his own child and they are all much more important than Peter.

“Pete, I need you to answer me bud, we can just avoid this conversation.” Tony was worried about him if his aunt was dead then who was looking after him? Where was he living? Did he have enough food? Was he in danger? His spiralling was cut short by a quite mumble from the small boy. “I can’t hear you kid, your gonna have to speak up. You know I’m getting old” Tony chuckled hoping to get a laugh out of the younger boy but all he got was a sad smile.

“I remember what I told you, Mr Stark.”

“Okay well, do you want to explain things then, because I’m at a bit of a loss here bud.”

Peter didn’t know where to start, telling Mr Stark made it feel much more real than it previously had, He knew that his aunt was dead and that nothing could change that, but it was so much easier to shut off from everything as he had been. He hadn’t even said it out loud until a few hours ago!

“A couple of months ago some policemen knocked on my door, they told me that May had died in an accident and that they were sorry for my loss” Peter could feel the tears start the run down his face as Mr Stark came to sit down next to him.

“God Pete, why didn’t you come to me?” Tony was mentally beating himself up for not realising, he should have known that something was up. He could have helped.

“Because I didn’t want your pity, Mr Stark! You have your own family to look after, just because I have no one doesn’t mean I can’t sort things out on my own”

Tony’s heart ached for the boy, he loved this kid so much and it hurt to hear that he believed he was all alone.

“I know you like to deal with things yourself kid but there are some things that you just can’t. I don’t pity you, Peter, I care about you a lot and I want to help you, you just need to let me.” Tony pulled Peter into a hug and held the boy as he cried.

Peter didn’t know what to feel, he had bottled up so much over the past couple of months and now he was pouring it out in front of the Tony Stark of all people. But it felt good to hear that he cared, he felt safe in his arms and even if it wasn’t true Peter wanted to indulge in his fantasies of Mr Stark caring about him a bit longer.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t know what to do. I’ve lost everyone I ever loved, and it just hurt too much to know that I’d lost her too” Peters cries were the only noise in the room for a while as Tony tried to calm Peters breathing and reassure him that he wasn’t going anywhere.

After a while, Tony loosened his grip on Peter and looked down at him “It’s alright kid. I think you should stay here from now on, how’s that sound?”

“What? No, Mr Stark, I couldn’t do that. What about Pepper and Morgan, wouldn’t they mind?”

“Are you kidding me, Pete? They love you just as much as I do.” Peter looked up at Tony with watery eyes but he had a small smile on his face, so Tony knew that the kid might just believe him. “so, what we are gonna do is get your stuff from wherever you’ve been staying and we’ll get you a room up on my floor, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” And for the first time in a while, Peter thought that things might turn out okay.

\--------------------

Living at the tower was a bit rocky at first. Peter didn’t leave his room much and he still had a hard time getting used to the fact that the Starks actually wanted him there and that he wasn’t just some charity case to them. But after a few weeks, they became a small little family and Peter was happier than he had been in a long time.

Peter absolutely adored Morgan, they had loads of tea parties and movie nights together when Peter wasn’t busy with schoolwork or in the lab with Mr Stark. Morgan always tells everyone that she has the best big brother ever and if Peter cried a little bit the first time he heard it, only he needed to know.

Every Tuesday after school Tony and Peter would lock themselves in the lab and work on whatever project they could think of, sometimes it was upgrading his spider suit and other times it was creating devices to help Peter with his enhanced senses. So far they’d created a new type of web fluid, it was a medical gauze type of thing so if Peter or anyone else ever got seriously injured it would effectively stop the person from bleeding out until they can get proper medical attention.

Mr Stark had made him take a break from Spider-man and school for the first few days, but it was needed. When he finally went back to school, he had a chat with Ned and MJ about everything that had happened and they were supportive and understanding which Peter will be forever grateful for. Ned did end up having a twenty-minute freak out over the fact Peter was now living in Stark Tower but Peter promised him he could come to stay over sometime soon.

It was now the last week of school before Spring Break and was making his way down to the labs peter to ask Mr Stark if Ned and MJ could stay over for a couple of days during the holidays. He got out of the elevator and made his way over to the door of the lab; he could faintly hear some sort of rock music coming from inside. Peter put in the code and the door opened. He looked around for a second trying to see where Tony was then he spotted him working on one of his old cars.

“Turn the music down please Friday.”

“Of course Peter.”

“Thanks.” Mr Stark hadn’t yet noticed that Peter was in the room even after he turned his music down so he slowly crept over to the other side of the lab and when he was close enough he crouched down and yelled:

“Hey Mr Stark!”

Tony jumped backwards, confused until he spotted Peter standing next to him laughing like mad. “Jesus Christ kid, you’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days,” Tony shook his head fondly before standing up and wiping his hands on an old rag “it’s good that you’re here actually, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Oh okay, I needed to ask you something too though.” Tony and Peter made their way over to the couch that Pepper put in the lab after Tony had fallen asleep down here one too many times.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Peter asked while curling up on one side of the couch.

“Remember that Harley kid I told you about a couple of years ago?”

“The one whose garage you crashed into and then kitted out because on the inside you are a big softy?” Peter teased and Tony gave him a look as if to say, ‘really Pete?’

“Yes that one. Well, he’s planning on going to MIT after he finishes his junior year and schools in bumfuck Tennessee aren’t exactly the best so I suggested he come and finish his school year at Midtown with you so he could get used to New York and some actual good teaching for once. We are planning on having him come the last week of spring break.”

Peter didn’t really know how to feel. He’d heard the whole Tennessee story multiple times and about how this kid saved Tony’s life and that he was one of the smartest kids Tony had ever met, they’d kept in touch ever since that incident but Peter had never actually met him. He felt a bit jealous that he would now be staying with them as well as if Tony was finally seeing how much of a nuisance he was and he wanted to replace him with someone better. Not that he had any right to feel that way so maybe having another genius kid around would be good. Maybe they could be friends.

“Oh right, that makes sense. So, what did he say?”

“Well he’s going to talk to his mum about it tonight and get back to me, but he seemed really excited over the phone and I can’t imagine Macy will say no,” Tony turned to properly face Peter who seemed to be sinking further into the corner of the couch “I just wanted to check it was all alright with you, Pepper has already okayed and we have more than enough space but I wanted to let you know ahead of time in case you had any objections.”

Peter sat up straight at that and looked at Tony with a confused face “why would I have any objects? It’s your house, I don’t mind who you let stay.”

“It’s your house too Pete. I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable with it because of everything that had happed. I don’t want to stress you out.”

“Oh right. It’s fine Mr Stark, I’m sure we’ll get along great!”

“I’m sure you will too kid,” Tony ruffled his hair causing Peter to glare at him “now what was it you wanted to ask me?”

“Oh yeah! I was wondering if it would be okay if Ned and MJ stayed over for a few days during spring break?”

“Sure kid. They are welcome round any time, you know that”

“Thanks, Mr Stark!”

“Call me Mr Stark one more time and I’ll take it all back.”

Peter laughed moving closer to Tony and grabbing his arm “Nooo please I’m sorry”

“You’re sorry what?”

“I’m sorry Tonyyyyy” Peter dragged out his name and tried not to burst out laughing.

“Sure you are kid, come on let’s go upgrade your suit before pepper comes down here and drags us up for dinner.”

\--------------------

“As I was saying, his names Harley and Tony says he’s gonna be finishing off the school year at Midtown with us,” Peter told Ned and MJ. The three teens had decided to video call after school to commemorate surviving the semester. So Peter was curled up in his bed, wearing an old MIT hoodie of Tony’s and his hello kitty pyjama pants with his laptop set up in front of him.

“So he’s gonna be living with you and stuff then?” Ned was still a bit in awe about the fact that Peter was living with Mr Stark and now he was gonna potentially get to know another genius kid who also was.

“Yeah, he is, I think it might be good to have another person around. We might be able to be friends even, but I’m not sure. Tony said he’s really nice and like the smartest kid he’s ever met so yeah.” As he was talking about how great Harley was that familiar feeling of self-doubt and unworthiness crept into his mind, he knows that Tony thinks he’s a bright kid and that he loves him but he cants help thinking that he probably loves Harley more and that’s why he’s coming to stay. It's stupid but he can’t help it.

He’d gotten better at talking about things since earlier in the year but he still had his bad days when he felt like the world was closing in on him again. Nightmares were a constant in his life but Peter was getting used to them and some of them weren’t even that bad anymore.

As if she could sense his impeding spiral MJ spoke up “I’m pretty sure you are the smartest kid Stark has ever met Peter, but that’s not the point, Harley is gonna love you and if he doesn’t who cares, you’ll always have us.”

Statements like this from MJ were rare so Peter knew that she meant it and it made him feel a bit better “thanks MJ.”

“No problem loser.”

A soft knock came from the direction of his bedroom door “Peteyyyy, Petey open the door.”

“Give me a sec guys, Morgan is at my door,” Peter told them while getting up and walking towards the door. Peter opened the door and looked down at Morgan, who was standing there in her pyjamas looking like she was going to fall asleep any second.

“What are you still doing awake little miss?” Peter picks her up and sits them both on the edge of the bed.

“Had to say goodnight to you first Petey! I ran away from daddy after I put my pyjamas on.” she giggled quietly to herself making Peter laugh. He loved Morgan as if she was his real sister. She had so much life in her and was the brightest five-year-old he knew (not that he knew any other five-year-olds).

“Did you now? Well, I’m sure your daddy won’t be too pleased about that so why don’t we get you to bed yeah?” Peter stands up and holds his arms out for Morgan to climb into. When he’s sure he won’t drop her, he moves over to his laptop to tell Ned and MJ a quick goodbye and that they’ll talk again soon.

Peter walked towards Morgan’s bedroom while she chatted happily in Peter’s ear telling him about all the things she had done today and how she had found a massive spider and wanted to keep it but daddy said he didn’t like spiders (Peter laughed to himself at that) so she had to let it go.

When Peter got to her room, he saw Tony sitting on her bed checking something on his Stark Pad. He looked up when they walked in and smiled.

“I figured she’d gone to find you so didn’t bother to chase after her” Tony took Morgan from Peter and tucked her into her bed “go and get some sleep yourself kid.”

“Alright, night Morgan I love you”

“Night Petey, love you too”

Peter turned to face Tony before leaving the room “Night Tony”

Tony stood there for a second, registering what Peter had said. before a smile took over his face “Night Pete”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley is ready to get the fuck out of rose hill

Harley had been waiting for this moment for 7 years. Ever since Tony broke into his garage when he was 11, Harley knew that one day he’d get out of Rosehill and move to New York. Yet as he looks around his room, with boxes piled into the corner waiting to be loaded into Tony’s private yet, it doesn’t seem real.

“Harley!” his sister Abby shouts his name from downstairs, she was one of the things he’d miss from this shitty town, her, and his ma of course. “HARLEY!”

“Gimme a sec will ya!”

“You don’t got a sec! Happys here and he wants to start putting your stuff on the jet.”

“Alright alright, I’m comin’ for godsake.”

Harley walked out of his room and made his way downstairs and into the living room. His ma was in the kitchen keeping herself busy and Abby was sat on the couch talking Happys ear off, which he looked so pleased about.

“Hey happy, all my stuff is in boxes, do you want me to help you carry it out?”

“Nah it’s alright kid, it’ll take me two seconds.” Happy looked grateful for the chance to get out of Abby’s constant talking and he went upstairs to start bringing the boxes down.

Harley didn’t own a lot of things most of his belongings were projects he’d done. They never really had much money growing up so a lot of his clothes were from charity shops or handed down from neighbours. Yet no matter how much they were struggling their ma always made sure they had the best, and he would be forever grateful for that.

That’s one of the reasons he was leaving Rosehill at first he thought he was selfish for wanting to leave. That he was just like his dad, abandoning his family in this god-awful town. But his ma reassured him, told him to go make something of himself and that he couldn’t do it if he was stuck in this tiny backwards town for the rest of his life. Harley was gonna try his damn hardest and make his ma proud of him.

He used to worry that she was ashamed of him. Their family had never been that popular in Rosehill, it probably stemmed from his dad getting into bar fights and racking up gambling debts with everyone before he skipped town and left them all behind. Harley used to be as bad he wasn’t racking up gambling debts but he got in a lot of fights went he was younger. He barely turned up to school and when he did he didn’t pay attention in lessons, always claiming he knew the content already. He would come home late to his ma passed out on the couch because she’d tried to stay up and wait for him.

Tony crashed into his garage about a year into his “bad boy” phase. Harley had been tinkering around on old cars before to distract himself from his pent-up anger but when tony upgraded his garage and gave him opportunities he’d never had before. The fights stopped and he spent his time fixing things and taking his anger out on metal instead of his classmates.

Things were okay for a while but everything went to shit when some kids in his year caught him kissing a guy behind the school. Turns out the guy he was kissing set him up, he was prepared to have to go home, pack his stuff up and catch the next bus out of town but his ma held him while he cried and she told him that she’d love him no matter what. Since then he shut himself off from everybody except his ma and Abby, the times he actually left the house ended up in him coming home with new bruises and words of abuse floating around in his head, but his ma and Abby were always there for him.

It didn’t take Happy long to get his boxes into the jet and before Harley knew it he was hugging his ma goodbye.

“You better not forget about us when you’re up there in your fancy new labs,” Macy always knew that her son was going to do great things and that it was only a matter of time.

“How could I ever forget you? you’re my ma for godsake.” Harley laughed trying to fight off the tears that were threatening to fall.

Macy held onto her son a little tighter before letting go “I love you, make sure you call when you get the chance.”

“I will” Harley gave his ma one last squeeze before turning towards his sister. “I’ll miss you but you better not mess with the garage while I’m gone.”

“I’m gonna turn it into an indoor swimming pool.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Harley fake gasped putting his hand up to his chest. Abby laughed at his antics but then pulled him into a tight hug

“I’ll miss you too Harls.”

Harley hugged back tighter before letting go completely “if I don’t get on that jet within the next minute Happy might cry so I guess this is bye for now,”

“Go on you idiot, get on that jet and live your life” Macy stepped beside her daughter and smiled towards Harley as he stepped up onto the jet and the door closed behind him.

\--------------------

This had to be the most expensive thing Harley had ever set foot on and at first, he felt slightly out of place in his tattered leather jacket and worn jeans. But he settled in quickly and revelled in the fact that this was going to be his life now.

It was about an hour and a half into the flight when Tony rang Harley.

“Hey kid, how’s the journey been so far?”

“Not bad, happy says we are about 30 minutes away. Will you be there when we land?” It’s had been a long time since Harley actual saw Tony last and sometimes the phone calls just didn’t cut it so he really hoped Tony would be there in person.

“Course I will! I talked Pepper out of making me do work today so I’ve just been playing with Morgan all day and waiting for you.”

“Will I get to meet her as well?” He asked excitedly. Tony had told Harley a lot about Morgan over the years, he still remembers the phone call he got from Tony, a couple of days after she was born. He sounded so proud and happy so Harley really hoped that Morgan liked him.

“Yeah I’ll bring her up, she’s excited to have another person to join her tea parties,” Tony chuckled fondly “clearly me and Peter aren’t good enough anymore.”

At the mention of Peter, Harley went quiet. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Tony’s intern. He knew the kid was smart, good at everything and from what Tony had told him Peter was the kindest person ever but Harley could help but resent him a bit. All those years he was stuck in Rosehill searching for an escape from the pain, this intern was worming his way into Tony’s life. Making himself part of the Stark family even though he hadn’t known them that long. Where was Harley's invitation? What was so good about Peter that it made Tony think he was a messiah or some shit?

“Hey, you still with me kid?” Tony’s voice crackled through the speaker pushing Harley out of his head and back into the real world.

“Uh, yeah sorry Tony. So, when do I get to meet this intern of yours?” It’s not that Harley wanted to but it was gonna happen eventually so he might as well prepare himself.

“He’s out with his friends right now, they had some sleepover thing yesterday and they decided to go get ice cream from someplace in Queens” Tony explained, “So you’ll probably meet him later tonight.”

“Oh right.”

“You’ll love him, he’s like the nicest kid ever. Always smiling and shit.” Tony laughed as if he could picture Peter beaming right in front of him “he’s really excited to meet you as well, it’ll do him some good to have another kid his age around.”

What was that supposed to mean? Peters just Tony’s intern yet he spoke about him as if he really cared for Peter. Harley didn’t like it; he also didn’t like Peter. So what if he hadn’t met him yet, Harley would put up a front for Tony but he was not going to be friends with Peter, not in a million years. He’s gonna find some way to prove to Tony that he was better than Peter.

“He sounds great Tony, can’t wait to meet him.”

“I’m glad. The jet is supposed to be here soon so I’ll let you go and me and Morgan will be there when you land.”

“Okay, see you.” Harley hung up the phone and spent the rest of the flight trying not to think about Peter and how much better than him he must be to have wrapped Tony round his finger.

He distracted himself by looking out the window, the buildings looked amazing from this high up. Harley had never been to New York, if he’s being honest he’d never been out of Rosehill. He would sit in his room and imagine what it would be like to get out, how many new people he’d meet. He imagined what it’d be like to live in a place he could actually be himself and as the roof of Stark tower drew nearer and nearer, it felt as if his dreams would become reality.

The jet lands on the roof of Stark Tower, Harley sorts out the bag he brought on with him while Happy opens the door and sorts out the steps down onto the landing pad.

The first thing Harley notices when he steps down of the jet is how happy Tony looks. When they first met he was a mess but now he looked as if all that weight was gone, Harley suspected it had something to do with the adorable little girl hiding just behind his legs. Tony also looked a lot older, grey hairs were starting to show but it wasn’t a bad look on him.

“Hey old man, miss me?” Harley smiled as Tony stepped towards him and brought him into a hug.

Tony pulled away and laughed “of course I did! Look at you you’re all grown up now, god.” Harley tried to protest as Tony reached up to mess with his hair but it didn’t work.

“So this is the wonderful Morgan I’ve been hearing so much about,” He said gesturing to the small girl who was standing watching the exchange. Tony turned around and scooped her into his arms then turned back around so she could meet Harley properly

“This is Harley, remember I told you about him earlier Morgan?” she nodded slightly and looked at Harley sceptically before turning back to her dad.

“Is he gonna join mine and Petey’s tea parties, daddy?” Harley couldn’t tell whether Morgan wanted the answer to be yes.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself, little miss,” Tony said to her which made Morgan look at Harley again expecting him to answer the question.

“Id love to join your tea parties if you’d let me, I’m sure they are loads of fun!” Harley had always loved kids and having a little sister had versed him in the ways of tea parties and dress up games. Even though he didn’t want to spend any time with Peter he’d love to hang out with Morgan so how could he refuse.

Morgan’s face breaks out into a huge smile and she wriggles around in her dad’s arms, wanting to be put down. When Tony sets her down she runs over to where Harley is and looks up at him.

“You can be my new best friend,” she declares, grabs his hand best she can and starks marching him towards the entrance to the tower.

“Guess we are going inside then” Tony calls out and Harley laughs “Happy, make sure to get all Harley’s stuff to his room!”

Harley thinks he hears Happy say something about not getting paid enough and more stupid kids coming into his life. Harley laughs, still being dragged along by Morgan and having Tony run behind trying to catch up, he doesn’t think anything could ruin his good mood.

\--------------------

Harley was wrong. There was something that could ruin his good mood, well someone.

He’d had a pretty great afternoon, Tony had shown him around the tower, explaining which labs he could go into and which he couldn’t, Tony had even set Harley up with his own work station which he was so excited about. His bedroom was massive, it had a huge window that covered one wall, the view was amazing and he made a mental note to himself to video call Abby later and show her. He’d also played with Morgan for a bit she’d shown him her toys and the lego models that she’d built all by herself.

He was now lounging in the living room playing around on his phone, while Tony and Morgan were watching some cartoon he’d forgotten the name of when Fridays voice came out the tower’s speakers which slightly startled Harley who still wasn’t 100% used to her.

“Boss, Mr Parker is on his way up in the elevator.”

“Thanks, Fri,” Tony then turned to Harley “that’s Peter, I’ll introduce you two properly when he gets up here.”

Harley let out a quiet _‘cool’_ as his response but it was anything but cool. He meant it earlier when he said he wasn’t going to be friends with Peter, what was he doing here anyway, he’s Tony’s intern so why was he showing up at the tower now?

The elevator dinged and the doors opened but before he got a chance to get a look at the infamous Peter Parker, Morgan shot of the couch and ran up to him.

“Petey!” Peter lifted her into a hug and smiled. Peter small for a seventeen-year-old, he had brown curly hair that looked really soft, his smile was nice and he had a weird sense of innocence surrounding him. Harley had to admit that and if he didn’t resent the boy so much he might think that Peter was cute.

“Hey princess! How’s your day been,” Peter hadn’t noticed Harley yet, too invested in what Morgan was telling him. It wasn’t until she mentioned his name that he looked up staring at Harley for a second before turning to glare accusingly at Tony.

“Why didn’t you warn me!?”

Tony laughed “because I like to watch you suffer,” He joked while walking up to him and taking Morgan out of his arms. “Harley this is Peter Parker, Peter this is Harley Keener. You guys can get yourselves acquainted while I get this monster to bed.” Tony tickled Morgan’s side causing her to screech as Tony carried her out the room she managed to stop laughing long enough to yell out goodnight to Peter and Harley.

The two boys stood in silence for a while, not really knowing what to do, Peter decided to break the silence.

“So, have you ever been to New York before?”

Harley winced at Peters sad attempt at small talk and gave a short ‘ _no’_ as his reply. Peter didn’t seem too put out though and he tried to continue the conversation

“Um well, I’ve lived here all my life so I could show you around sometime if you’d like?”

“No thanks, darling.”

Peters face flushed at the name but then a small frown took over his face as he realised Harley had rejected his offer.

“Oh right okay,” Peter stood there fiddling awkwardly with the sleeves of his jumper, neither boy said anything and Harley was starting to get irritated with the boys' presence but he didn’t get the hint, just stood there frowning at the ground. Harley coughed to try and break the tension and Peter looked up, He decided to shoot him his famous _‘what are you still doing here, go away’_ look and this time Peter go the idea.

“I’m just gonna go, sorry” Peter mumbled quickly before hurriedly leaving the room.

Part of Harley felt bad, he wanted to go and apologise to the boy and take him up on his offer but Harley pushed that to the back of his mind. Truthfully, Peter hadn’t done anything wrong but at the same time, in Harley's eyes at least, he’d done everything wrong. Harley barely even knew him but it seemed as if the boy was everything Harley wasn’t and that hurt. He knows he’s caused a lot of trouble over the years but he can’t have been that bad right? Tony wasn’t trying to replace him, why would he invited Harley all the way here to then just get rid of him? It was stupid and Harley knew that but he couldn’t bring himself to be friends with Peter.

Harley laughed lowly to himself, willing the self-deprecating thoughts out of his head before turning and leaving the room. It was only 7:30 pm so there was no way Harley would be going to sleep yet. He decided to go to his room and call his ma.

As he walked down the corridor towards his bedroom he noticed the door opposite his open and peter was sat on the bed inside, the door slammed shut before he could see what he was doing though.

 _Huh weird_ he thought but decided he didn’t want to dwell on the boy any longer tonight and went into his room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley is an asshole and Peter is straight-up not having a good time (again)

Peter felt stupid, really stupid He doesn’t know how he managed to convince himself that Harley would like him but it was a waste. Why did he always have to do this to himself? Of course, someone like Harley would hate him. Harley was confident and charming; he was a mechanic like Tony and Peter bet that he was a good one. His hair was dirty blonde and just the right amount of messy, he had really nice blue eyes, he was fit, not just in the superficial sense either and Harley’s accent made him want to swoon. He was exactly Peters type. _Wait what? There is no way I think Harley is attractive._ Harley was everything Peter wasn’t and that hurt so he shut that train of thought off very quickly.

Peter didn’t feel like being in the tower anymore so he decided to go out and do the only thing he was good at. Quickly, he pulled on the spider suit and quietly slid open the bedroom window. His room was the only one with a window that actually opened, Tony changed it after he realised it would be a lot easier for him to go out on patrol then get back in afterwards.

“Got anything interesting for me, Karen?”

“A mugging has just taken place on 67th street.”

“Copy that.” Peter leaps off the building and starts swinging to where the mugging took place.

\--------------------

The majority of Peter’s night was like that, stopping muggings and petty thefts. He even found the most adorable litter of stray kittens and took them to a nearby animal shelter (even though he really wanted to keep one) overall it was a chilled-out night for Spider-man. Peter also took some time to think about ‘The Harley Situation’ he decided he was just going to stay out of his way, that way there was nothing else that Harley could hate Peter for. He would be going to midtown and the boys would be in the same classes because Harley was definitely smart enough to be, but it wasn’t like they would be in the same social circle. Peter was a loser who got bullied daily and only had two real friends but it could be a lot worse so he just accepted it for what it was.

Peter sat on the top of some random building, his legs dangling off the edge as he admired New York at night. It was one of his favourite things about living here, it made him realise how insignificant he was in the grand scheme of things. A concept that most people wanted to pretend didn’t exist but it helped to ground Peter.

Living each day had been getting gradually easier, he didn’t think about Aunt May every second of the day anymore. But sometimes he would pass a Thai restaurant or one of the thrift stores May loved and her memory would hit him like a freight train, it was an achievement if Peter spoke to anyone on those days.

“Peter it is almost one o’clock. I would recommend that you make your way back to the tower before you pass your curfew.” Karen’s voice pulled Peter out of his head. _Was it really one already?_ Peter thought to himself, he must have lost track of time.

“Alright, thanks Karen.” He replied before making his way back to the tower. He landed on the roof and then crawled down the side of the building until he reached his room. He slid the window open and crawled onto the ceiling then dropped down onto his bed. He stayed there for a second, staring at the ceiling before getting up and changing into some hulk themed pyjama bottoms and an old hoodie that was most likely Tony’s.

He left his room and walked into the kitchen to get a drink before going to bed. The light was already on so Peter assumed that Tony was still up but when he turned the corner he saw Harley sat at the breakfast bar, empty mug next to him while he typed something on his laptop.

Peter walked over to the fridge deciding to just ignore the boy as he seemed like he was engaged in something but as he opened the door and went to grab a bottle of water, Harley’s head shot up.

“What are you still doing here?” Peter didn’t understand what he meant; he was too tired to deal with this shit.

“What do you mean? I live here.” Peter deadpanned.

Peters response seemed to shock Harley “What?! For how long?”

Peter didn’t understand why him living in the tower was such a big deal and he wanted to snap back at the older boy and say _since my aunt fucking died and left me on my own_ but he didn’t “I’ve been living here for a couple of months now, I thought you knew.” the tail end of Peter’s sentence was quieter than the rest _,_ he couldn’t understand why Mr Stark hadn’t told Harley that he was living here too.

_Its because he’s embarrassed by you Peter, why would he want Harley knowing that someone like you actually lived here?_

“Well I obviously didn’t, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked. I thought you were supposed to be smart.” Harley snapped while glaring at Peter.

Peter flinched at his tone; he had never coped well when people were annoyed at him. He didn’t know how to respond to what Harley had said and his brain was working at a mile a minute so he decided to quickly grab his water bottle and leave the room.

Peter lay in his bed, trying to forget about the conversation that had just taken place but his mind wouldn’t shut up. _The only reason you are in this room right now is because Mr Stark pities you._ No, that’s not true, he knew that Tony cared about him. _Well why else wouldn’t he have told Harley that you live in the tower with them, he’s embarrassed because you are just a charity case._ Maybe it just slipped his mind or he did tell Harley and he forgot.

Peters thoughts kept on going round in similar circles, needless to say, he didn’t get much sleep that night.

\--------------------

 _Knock knock_ “Pete,” _knock knock knock_ “Pete buddy, you need to get up.”

Peter opened his eyes and blinked a few times before he got used to the light, he looked to the right and read the time off of his clock _9:30 am_ it read, he must have slept in

“I’m up Mr Stark.”

As soon as he says that his bedroom door opens up and Tony steps in, “What have I told you about that Mr Stark bullshit Pete, I thought we were getting somewhere,” He crosses his arms and tries to give him a stern look that makes Peter laugh quietly “get out of bed and come get some breakfast, everyone else is already up and eating.”

“Okay, give me like five minutes to properly wake up then I’ll be out,” Peter said softly while rubbing his eyes and willing himself to stay awake.

“You alright kid?” Tony asked, taking note of how tired the boy looked.

“Didn’t sleep well last night,” Peter replied bluntly.

“Nightmares?” Tony asked carefully, the boy had only come to him once or twice because of his nightmares but tony wanted him to know that he was there for him.

“Something like that,” Peter muttered.

“Alright then kid, I’ll be in the kitchen waiting with a plate of pancakes with your name on them,”

“Did you make them?” Peter asks Tony sceptically. He has never been the best cook; he was lucky if he could make toast without burning it. Mr stark says it is one of his many ‘gifts’ though Peter would strongly disagree.

“Of course I didn’t, Pepper made them.” Tony laughed and walked out of his room leaving Peter alone once more.

His encounter with Harley last night was still hanging in the back of his mind and peter felt heavy as he got out of bed. Looked like today was just going to be one of _those_ days. Hopefully, he could just lock himself in the lab and work all day.

Peter walked out of his room, not bothering to change out of his pyjamas yet. The floor felt cold underneath his bare feet as he walked into the kitchen and took his seat at the breakfast bar.

“Moring Pepper,” he said while stifling a yawn

“Morning sweetheart,” she replied while placing a large plate of pancakes in front of Peter “eat up.”

Peter starts eating immediately, feeling a lot hungrier than he previously was “Thanks Pep, these are great!” he says with his mouth half full.

“Pete manners, there’s a small impressionable child right there” Tony scolded jokingly.

For the first time that morning, Peter actually paid attention to the other people in the room. Tony was sat at the other end of the breakfast bar with what was probably his second cup of coffee in his hand as he scrolled through something on his Stark Pad. Morgan was sat next to him, colouring in one of her many colouring books and already dressed for the day ahead. Then there was Harley, he was sat nearer Peter, eating his pancakes, and drinking coffee. _He’s sort of like a mini Tony_ Peter thought.

“So, Harley,” Tony started causing the boy in question to raise his head “It's your first full day in New York, what are you planning on doing?”

“Uh, I wasn’t really planning on doing anything,” Harley admitted.

“What do you mean you aren’t gonna do anything!?” Tony exclaimed while flailing his hands around, then he stopped a second before smiling widely “I’ve just had the best idea! Why don’t you get Peter to show you around?”

Peters head shot up as Harley began to answer, “I’m sure he has better things to do than show me around New York Tony.”

Tony looked towards Peter as if to ask him _well do you?_

“Uh well I’ve got some homework that I was hoping to finish,” Peter answered quietly, He didn’t actually, all of the homework he’d been given had been finished in the first two days of the break, but he knew Harley didn’t want to hang out with him.

“Nonsense, you aren’t going to spend the last few days of your spring break doing homework,” Tony replied already having made up his mind that the boys were going out today. Peter knew that there was no point arguing the point any further so he let it go, which Harley didn’t seem pleased about but decided not to make a fuss. “It’s settled then, I’ll give you some money and you guys can spend the entire day in the city,”

“Sounds good Tony,” Harley replied, drank the rest of his coffee then left the kitchen, presumably to go and get dressed.

Peter slowly finished the rest of his breakfast slowly even though he wasn’t hungry anymore. Once he had finished he thanked Pepper for a second time and then went to get dressed.

It didn't take Peter long to decide what he was gonna wear, it didn’t look like it was going to rain today so he quickly pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt that said ‘turn down for watt’ and had a lightbulb in the middle of it. Ned had bought it for him a couple of birthdays ago and it was one of Peters favourite t-shirts. He then spent 5 minutes pacing around his room trying to come up with ways to make this day as least awkward as possible and also make it so Harley didn’t hate him anymore by the end of it.

He was working himself out of a mini panic attack when Tony knocked on the door to tell him Harley was waiting for him in the living room. _Its gonna be fine, I can do this._ Peter opened his door and made his way into the living room; Harley was sat on the couch playing on his phone. He had a pair of black skinny jeans on, a plain white shirt and a brown leather jacket that looked like it had seen better days.

“Hey Harley, are you ready to go?” Peter asked.

Harley looked up at him “nice shirt,” he laughed at Peter then walked over to the elevator while Peter just stood there “are you coming darling?” he smirked, “or are you just gonna stand there?”

There was that damn name again “why do you keep calling me that?” Peter asks without thinking as he joins Harley in the elevator.

“What ‘darling’? It’s a southern thing, you’re not special.” Harley answered while laughing at him again. _Great now he thinks you’re an idiot, nice going Peter._

“Uh so where do you want to go first, we will probably have to get the subway but it's not actually that bad once you are used to it. And Mr Stark gave us some money so I could take you to this really good pizza place I know and-”

Harley cut off Peters rambling “God you talk a lot,” Harley pulled a set of car keys out of his pocket “we’re not taking the subway because I have a car and I don’t really care where we go but I need coffee so, where’s the nearest coffee shop?”

“You can drive?” Peter didn’t know how he felt about getting in a car with the older boy.

“I’ve been driving since I was 14,” The elevator doors opened and the boys walked out into the parking garage and Harley led Peter over to his car. It was an old black muscle car and it had a red stripe along the side. Peter didn’t know much about cars but he knew that his must be a pretty good one.

Peter and Harley got in the car and Harley spent a couple of minuets fiddling around the with the radio until he settled on a station which only played country music. The ride was silent apart from Peter giving Harley directions to the coffee place. Peter decided to take Harley to this small family-owned café that he liked downtown.

They found a parking space nearby and walked into the café. There were only 4 other people inside when they walked in, Peter had never known it to be busy. The walls were grey with framed art along them, there were small tables of two dotted around the shop. The tables in the corner had large brown leather chairs around them and they were Peters favourite.

Harley handed peter the debit card that Tony had given them “Get me a black coffee darlin’ no sugar or anything” _definitely a mini Tony._ Peter took the card and walked up to the counter.

“Peter! It's great to see you again hun, what can I get you?” Sophia was the daughter of the woman who owned the café. Peter was a regular here so he had got to know Sophia quite well. She was a small woman in her late 30s and Peter liked her a lot.

“Hi Sophia, can I get a black coffee and a hot chocolate with marshmallows in to go please,” Peter asked. He didn’t drink coffee anymore after an all-nighter where he had drank at least 20 cups, crashed and threw up a lot.

“Of course, they’ll be two seconds,” She turned around and started on their drinks, Peter looked back towards Harley who was talking to some random girl that was sat at the table behind him. she was laughing really obnoxiously at whatever he said and leaning into him. Peter thought she looked stupid. He messed around on his phone until Sophia had finished making the drinks. A few minutes later she turned around and put them on the counter.

“That’ll be $6.50 sweetheart,”

Peter put the card on the reader “thanks Sophia!”

“No problem Peter, you come back soon yeah?”

“Will do”

Peter walked over to the table Harley was at and handed him his drink and the credit card back. He sat down in the chair and the girl who Harley was previously talking to glared at him, Harley gestured at her to wait a sec then he turned to face Peter

“Hey so Chole here says she can show me around some cool places in New York, so you can like go home or something,” Peter didn’t say anything for a while trying to understand the fact that Harley was going to ditch him for someone he just met and figuring out how to respond.

“Oh right okay then, have fun I guess” he eventually decided on.

Harley got up and turned to the girl, flashed her a smile “you ready to go then darlin’?” the pair walked out the shop and Peter was left alone, watching them leave.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite popular belief, Tony Stark is a good dad. Peter is no longer gonna take any of Harley's shit.

Peter didn’t think he’d ever get used to the noise of the subway. Each carriage is always crammed full of people and there is never a moment of silence. Before he got his powers it was bearable but now everything was too hot, too close, too loud.

He didn’t stay in the café long after Harley left. He knew that Mr stark had meetings today and that Pepper had taken Morgan out so their floor would be empty. He got what he wanted, didn’t he? Peter no longer had to spend the day with Harley so why did he feel so rejected when he watched him walk out with that girl? Logistically they would never work and it was so obvious that Harley was one of those fuckboys that didn’t do relationships and he’s not even gay.

Normally Peter didn’t like taking the subway, preferring to walk but he didn’t want to chance walking past one of May’s favourite places or bumping into somebody she knew (even though New York was massive, it could still happen) But even as he stepped onto the subway he couldn’t stop thinking about her, what would she do in this situation? Peter wanted more than anything to be able to hug his aunt right now. He wanted to sit and cry while she told him it was going to be okay because truthfully Peter didn’t know what he was doing. He thought things had been getting better, that he’d gotten past this stage of wanting to cry every time he thought about her but clearly he hadn’t.

The journey felt like it would never end but eventually, Peter was walking towards the tower. He sped up his steps not wanting to spend any more time outside than he had to. His head was starting to pound, his skin felt prickly and his ears were pricking up at every little noise. He entered the tower quickly and not paying attention to anyone as he scanned his pass and walked into the special elevator that was only for family/friends of Mr Stark.

“Take me to floor 76 please Friday.” The 76th floor was Peter's favourite place in the whole tower. It had been about a week into Peter living at the tower and Tony had excitedly come into his room one morning, dragging peter out of his bed and pulling him down the hall and into the elevator. He had no clue what was going on and tiny just kept saying _‘shush it’s a surprise’_ and a surprise it was. Floor 76 held Peters very own lab, he nearly cried when Tony showed it to him.

“Of course Peter, would you like me to let Boss know that you and Harley are back,” Friday replied politely as always

“No, Harley isn’t with me but if Tony asks we came back together.”

“As you wish Peter.”

The elevator ride was short and silent, Peter spent most of it trying to calm the storm in his head. As soon as the doors opened Peter was out and entering the code for his lab into the keypad. The lab wasn’t huge but it had enough space that Peter could test out new suits or weapons there. His spiderman suits were displayed in a similar fashion to Tony’s, even his original suit was there (‘suit’ might be a stretch it's more like a onesie). He had a whole PC set up for when he needed to use code or map out the design for a new suit, a chemical corner with all the proper safety precautions that Tony had to put in after more than one accidental fire was caused, shelves and cupboards full of materials or projects Peter had started and Tony had even put in a normal desk for him to do homework on and a chill-out space for if Peter needed some time alone. The room was soundproof and all the glass was one way so nobody could see anything they weren’t supposed to, even though the only people allowed down here were him, Tony and Pepper, you could never be too careful.

Peter sat down at his workbench, he put his noise-cancelling earphones and adjusted the dial so they would block out all noise then he started working.

\--------------------

Harley was exhausted when he finally got back to the tower. His day had been draining and the girl he was with got annoying after a while, it made him wish he hadn’t ditched Peter earlier that morning. He had seen some cool places in New York but having a girl hang off his arms and laugh obnoxiously at his jokes felt wrong. He couldn’t risk people finding out he was gay though, so he was going to keep up this front and hope that it’d get easier over time.

Harley got the elevator up to the Starks floor and headed straight for his room, it didn’t look like anyone was home yet and he didn’t really care where Peter was. He sat on his bed and set Abby all the pictures he’d taken today, they messaged back and forth for a while before she had to go and help ma with dinner. Harley grabbed his laptop and watched some random show on Netflix to pass the time.

He didn’t know when but he must have zoned out at some point because it was now dark out. Harley got up and stretched out his arms before leaving his room and going to see if Tony was back yet. He walked into the kitchen, straight away spotting Tony sitting at the breakfast bar, idly talking as Pepper was cooking. He smiled at Harley as he came and sat beside him.

“Hey, kiddo. How was your big day out in NYC?” Tony asked while making exaggerated hand movements as if to explain how big the city was.

“It was good, Peter took me to some cool places,” He lied but Tony didn’t seem to be picking up anything so Harley let himself relax slightly.

“I’m glad you boys had fun, do you by any chance know where Pete is?” Tony asked

“Uh no, I haven’t seen him since we got back.” Harley did feel slightly bad about lying to Tony, especially because Tony was kind enough to let him live here but he knew that if Tony found out about their dislike for each other he would feel bad and try to fix it.

“Hmm okay. Friday, where’s Peter?”

“Mr Parker is on floor 76 Boss, would you like me to give him a message,” Friday answered

“Yeah, tell him to get up here, dinner will be ready soon.”

“Is that all Boss,”

“Yep, thanks Fri.”

Tony fell back into his conversation with Pepper and Harley sat and listened along. He liked Pepper, she was a strong woman but also kind, she always knew the right thing to say. Harley thinks that she and Abby would get along very well.

Harley can hear little feet running towards the kitchen and before he knows it he has a small weight barrelling into his legs, he looked down at Morgan as she grinned up at him. Her hair was all over the place and her face was covered in different stickers.

“Hey there trouble, what are you doing down there?” he laughed while lifting her up onto the chair next to him.

“I came and sneak attacked you!” She said while shaking her hands towards Harley's face.

He smiled fondly at the small girl, playing along with her game “it was a pretty sneaky attack, maybe you should practice them on your dad,” He turned to grin at Tony who was finishing setting up the table, while Pepper plated up the dinners.

“Hey, don’t bring me into your schemes!”

Harley and Morgan laughed at him and then Morgan began rambling about something that Harley didn’t quite understand but he nodded along and matched her enthusiasm. Tony and Pepper set the plates down on the table and sat down.

“Peter's still not up here, I swear that kid is worse than me sometimes,” Tony said feigning annoyance but he also seemed slightly worried “You guys start eating, I’ll go get him myself,”

\--------------------

Tony had to admit that he was anxious to introduce Harley to Peter, he knew what Harley could be like sometimes but he was a good kid really. It seemed like the two were getting along though, they weren’t as close as Tony had hoped but it was a step in the right direction.

The elevator doors opened onto the 76th floor and Tony stepped out and walked towards the door to the lab and put the code in. The lab was dead silent and looked empty upon first glance.

“Pete?” no answer “Peter I know you are in here somewhere,” Tony’s scanned his eyes around the room before he finally spotted Peter. He was curled up on a chair staring intently at a hologram of the spider suit and muttering things under his breath. Tony walked up to him and was about to call out his name but he noticed the small earbuds in his ears. _Weird, he only wears those if he’s on the brink of a sensory overload_ Tony thought before carefully putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder to get his attention.

Peter flinched harshly at the contact and pushed away from Tony, quickly taking the earbuds out of his ears and moving into some sort of fighting stance. He relaxed his body when he noticed that it was only Tony but he still looked stressed and jittery.

“Hey Mr stark, what’s up,” Peter asked while putting a strained smile on his face.

“I came to get you for dinner Pete, how long have you been down here?”

“Can’t remember,” He said quickly “I can’t have dinner though, I’ve got lots of work to do down here, don’t have time to stop.” Peter turned back the hologram of the suit, scribbling equations and notes onto the workbook he had out.

Tony knew something was wrong, Peter acted like this a lot when he first started living with him. Tony thinks it had something to do with Peter finally letting May grieve over his aunt’s death.

“Come on Pete, let’s go upstairs, you need a break,” He carefully grabbed Peters arm and pried him away from the desk.

“No, I need to stay here, I need to work,” Peter tried to go back to the desk but Tony held on to him “I have to make it better, I need to make sure I can protect you,”

_Oh,_ It clicked in his head _so this is a May thing._ Peter had felt pretty guilty after Mays death, one night after Tony had woken him up from a nightmare Peter told him about everything all the guilt he felt and how he wished he could have saved her. Something must have triggered him today which is why he’s upset now.

“It’s alright kid, I am safe, I’m not going anywhere,” Tony spoke softly while bringing Peter over to the couch in the corner of the lab.

“But I have to, I have to make sure. I don’t want anyone else to die because of me,” Peter cried, he was shaking now and he kept on mumbling things under his breath, Tony couldn’t really make out much of it. He pulled Peter in closer to him and worked towards calming him down.

They sat there for a while, Tony hugging Peter while he controlled his breaths and stopped his shaking but eventually, he calmed down enough and looked up at Tony.

“Sorry,”

“What for kid?”

“Crying all over you… again.”

“I’ll always let you cry on me Pete” Tony laughed “now, come on you need to eat.”

\--------------------

The last few days of spring break were uneventful for Peter. He managed to avoid Harley only really having to speak to him at dinner. They were civil with each other and Tony was none the wiser. he wasn’t taking anymore of Harley’s shit though, MJ was always telling him that he needed to stick up for himself more so whatever snarky remark he threw, Peter responded with an even snarkier one. It wasn’t perfect but it was how they worked and that was fine by Peter.

They were now both in the back of Happy’s car on the way to Midtown. Peter was facetime Ned and MJ. He had explained the whole Harley situation to them and had to convince MJ not to beat him up at school tomorrow. The car ride was silent and slightly awkward and tense but Happy either didn’t notice it or was ignoring them both, Peter guessed it was probably the latter.

The car pulled up outside of the school and the boys got out “bye Happy, thanks for the ride!” Peter exclaimed while waving goodbye.

“See you later kid.”

Peter turned around to Harley “I'll take you to the front office but then I’ve got to go,”

“Fine by me darlin’,” Harley smirks and follows Peter into the school. It doesn’t take the duo long to get to the office and Peter says by to Harley and walks further into the school, going to find Ned and MJ, hoping that today won't be an absolute train wreck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! five chapters in and I'm so glad you guys are enjoying it so far.   
> I'm having a lot of fun writing it and I promise things will get happier soon and there will be lots of peter and Harley fluff in the future :)  
> please feel free to leave a comment, it doesn't even have to relate to the story, and i'll reply asap  
> also there will be updates every Monday <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter gets bullied, Spider-man fails to save some people and Harley has a lot of thinking to do

Midtown was nothing like his school back in Rosehill.

After Peter left Harley picked up his timetable and started to make his way through the maze of hallways that was the school. He passed multiple trophy cases and award boards on the way but instead of them being full of everything sport-related there were trophies for science fairs. The academic decathlons team recent win displayed with pride. Music shows, drama productions and languages awards were proudly plastered onto Midtown's walls. Frankly, Harley felt a little overwhelmed. He knew that this was a good school and that there are others like it in the country but he never thought he was going to get to experience it himself. He was gonna have to thank Tony so much when he gets home tonight.

Eventually, Harley found the room he was looking for; first period English, room C16 Mrs Anderson. _Well here goes nothing, it can’t be worse than Rosehill_ Harley thought, pushed the door open and walked into the classroom. The room goes reality silent when the class notice Harley

“Ahhh you must be Harley keener!” a kind-looking woman exclaims

“Yep, that’s me,” He replies feeling slightly awkward but he quickly built up the persona he’d perfected the last few days and smirked at some of the girls who had reacted his accent.

“Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself while I think of where to sit you,” Mrs Anderson says before turning towards her computer, presumably to add Harley to the seating plan. Harley turns to the class and scans his eyes over everyone before putting on a smile and starting to talk.

“Hey y’all, I’m Harley and I moved here from Rosehill Tennessee and I’m staying with a friend until I finish my school year,” He spoke smoothly laughing internally at the girls in the back corner who were practically drooling over him. The teacher told him to go sit down in an empty seat and then started the lesson. It went quickly, they were reading some book he didn’t care about but he tried to follow along as much as he could.

The first of his day went pretty similarly and no matter how annoying he found his other classmates or how boring his classes are he was really happy to finally be somewhere with likeminded people. It was nice to be able to talk about something and people not looking at him as if he’s grown three heads. He also seemed to be pretty popular, which was something Harley had no idea how to deal with but he was slowly figuring it out.

Peter hadn’t been in any of his classes so far which he was glad about, he didn’t need another reminder of how smart the younger boy was. He spent his lunch with some of the people he had met in his last lessons. Most of them were girls, which had no problem shamelessly flirting with him. There was also this guy called Flash and some of his friends, Harley could barely stand him but it was better than sitting alone so he was pushing through it.

He and Flash both had science with Mr Harrington last so they walked together to the lesson. On the way, Flash was telling him about some new expensive video game he got but Harley couldn’t care less. They managed to make it to the class without Harley murdering flash and as they walked in the first thing he noticed was Peter.

He was sat in the back corner with two other people. One, a girl with dark curly hair. She was drawing in some sketchbook and making odd comments at the boys now and then. The other, a boy who was on the slightly larger side. He was talking animatedly to Peter about something and Peter was matching his enthusiasm. _These must be the friends' Peter was hanging out with the day I arrived_ Harley thought.

Flash pulled Harley over to a seat and sat down with him. They were right in front of Peter and his friends, Flash was trying to explain something to him but the laughter from the group behind him kept interrupting him. He spun around to face the group and glared directly at Peter

“Can you not see that me and my friend are trying to have a conversation, did your parents never teach you basic manners?” He asked harshly and Harley watched as hurt clouded over Peter's eyes. “I guess they couldn’t of, could they penis?”

“Just shut up flash, we weren’t even doing anything,” MJ snaps, trying to defend her friend.

“Nobody was asking you, Jones,” Flash says angrily.

Harley didn’t know what to do, he didn’t want to just sit here and watch Flash torment Peter and his friends but he also didn’t want to stick up for Peter. What reason has Peter given him to be nice? Yet it felt like he was watching a version of his younger self getting bullied back in Rosehill, no matter how much he hated Peter he wasn’t gonna let someone bully him, Harley of all people know how much that fucks you up.

“Come on man, let's just move. Why would we want to sit by Parker anyway?” Harley blurts out without thinking, hoping it came across as nonchalant as he wanted it too.

Flash took a second to think it over and then replied: “Whatever, He’s right though, I’m surprised you even have friends to sit with parker.” He barked out a laugh then grabbed his bag and moved across the classroom. Harley reluctantly followed behind he couldn’t let Flash know that he knew, let alone, lived with Peter. He escaped the bulling in Rosehill and he wasn’t letting it happen to himself here.

\--------------------

Peter didn’t know whether to feel relieved or embarrassed. Yes, Harley got Flash to back off but now he knows that Peter gets bullied. Now he’s going to think that Peter was even more pathetic than before. Maybe he’d think that it was just a one-time thing? But Peter knew that that was wishful thinking.

The lesson started not long after the altercation but Peter wasn’t paying much attention, he knew most of this stuff anyway. _Of course, this would happen to me, fucking Parker luck back at it again_ Peter thought angrily. Oh god, what if he tells Tony? Peter felt like smashing his head against the desk. He’ll just have to find some way to keep Harley quiet, shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Mr Harrington’s voice droned on; Peter participated when he had to but other than that he stayed silent watching the clock as it counted down the minutes till the bell went. Time went painfully slow but as soon as the bell went Peter shot up out of his seat. He ran down the hall to his locker grabbed his stuff before walking out the school, hiding behind a wall and waiting until he can see Harley.

His plan of grabbing Harley and begging him not to tell Tony about flash might be a bit pathetic and dramatic but it was all he could think of. So he waited, it didn’t take long before he saw Harley walk out of the building, luckily without flash in tow. Before he could re-think it he darted out and grabbed Harley by the arm, pulling him behind the wall.

“What the actual fuck!” Harley exclaimed, then he noticed who had grabbed him “Peter?”

“I’m sorry for grabbing you but you cannot tell Mr Stark about flash,” Peter said quickly, hoping that Harley wouldn’t question it

“Wait what?” Harley said while sighing “you pulled me over here to beg me not to tell Tony that you are being bullied?

“Yes! I know its pathetic and you can laugh at me as much as you want, but Tony already has enough to worry about so please, don’t tell him” Peter put on his best puppy dog eyes and really hoped that Harley would do this for him despite only knowing him for a few days.

“Fine whatever, I won’t tell your dad, just stop looking at me like that,” he says finally while pushing off the wall.

“Thanks” Peter sighed relieved then he realised what the older boy had said, “Mr Stark is not my dad!” He yelled while running after Harley.

He shot a look at Peter “Could have fooled me”

“He’s not!”

\--------------------

It hadn’t taken Harley long to fully settle into Midtown and by the end of the week, he knew where everything was and had met all his teachers. He was still hanging around with flash, the boy could be bearable sometimes but most of the time he was grating.

It was now Friday night and Harley had had a particularly taxing day. Flash was being more annoying than usual and had said some stuff that hit home with Harley, then on top of that all his teachers were being patronising and acting as if Harley was dumber than the other kids. Tony, Pepper and Morgan were all out so all he wanted to do was shut himself in the lab for the rest of the evening, but that wasn’t working out too well for him either. He was trying to fix something on his car but no matter what he tried it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to,

“Fuck!” He yelled throwing his tools across the labs and stalking out of there, in an even worse mood than earlier.

He was hoping that nobody was in the living room but of course Peter had to be there, Peter was always fucking there. He was sat on the sofa watching a news report on an apartment fire.

“What are you doing?” Harley sneered.

Peter flinched slightly at Harleys tone “why’s it any of your business?” He bit back

Harley sat down on the couch, furthest away from Peter. “I’m just wondering why you are watching a news report about some house fire that happed days ago.”

“Did you know that Spider-man was at that fire?” Peter asked quietly but there was something in his tone that grated on Harley.

“Yeah and he saved a bunch of people, what’s your point?” Harley glared across the couch at him but Peter wasn’t paying attention, just intently staring at the screen.

“He didn’t save everyone though! He’s supposed to be a hero, yet he let innocent civilians die,” Peter shouted, finally making eye contact with Harley. His eyes were red and he looked like he hadn’t slept in a while.

“Who are you to judge what a hero is? He tried his dammed best and I don’t see you going out and saving lives!” Harley had come up here in the hopes calming down but obviously Peter had to ruin that too.

“But he let someone die! He was reckless, got himself hurt and then left without finishing the job,” Peter was yelling now

“You ain’t got any right to say that Parker, you’re here moping about and begging me not to tell Tony about you being bullied because you can’t fucking stand up for yourself while there are heroes out there, doing good in the world” Harley couldn’t listen to Peter berated the hero anymore, Spider-man had always been one of Harley's favourite superheroes. The fact he helped everyone no matter who they were and wasn’t too big to do menial tasks like help somebody cross the road, made him someone Harley really looked up too.

“Your weak Parker, I’m surprised Tony keeps you around.” and with that Harley got up and stormed out of the room.

\--------------------

It had been a few hours since Harley’s argument with Peter and he had calmed down enough to slightly regret the insults he had thrown at Peter. He didn’t regret defending Spider-man but he doesn’t think Peter deserved to be called weak. He was debating if he should say something and whether his ego would allow that when he heard a knock at his door.

“Come in!” He yelled and the door pushed open to reveal Tony standing in the doorway

“Hey kid, have you seen Peter?” Tony asks coming into the room and sitting down on his desk chair

“Uh no not since-” Harley trailed off, was he really about to tell Tony about their argument.

“Since?” Tony prompted

“Well we kinda had an argument earlier and I stormed out the room, I’ve not seen him since then” Harley admitted looking down at the bed.

Tony sighed and rubbed his hands over his face “Look, kid, I was hoping that Peter was going to tell you this himself but I guess I’m going to have to.” He paused for a second before continuing “Peters aunt died earlier this year, she was his last living relative. Its why he’s living here and why at times he might act a bit ‘strange’.”

_Well, fuck_ if Harley didn’t feel bad before he definitely did now.

“I know you two aren’t the best of friends but just go easy on him, yeah? I’m not saying you have to be all buddy buddy but cut him a bit of slack.” Tony finished, then left the room muttering under his breath about having a dysfunctional kid to find, but even though the muffled words Harley could hear how much he cared about that kid.

Harley had a lot of thinking to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you thought in the comments  
> sorry is a bit shorter than most of my chapters, I've got a bad hangover but I still wanted to get something out to you guys.  
> I'm pretty happy with this chapter though and we are reaching the peak of Harley's hatred towards Peter, I promise things will work themselves out soon!   
> Hope you are all staying safe and healthy <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter gets real in a graveyard, some father-son bonding and Peter and Harley might be okay (eventually)

Peter watched as Harley stormed out the room; not quite understanding what just happened. It was weird listening to Harley defend him and berate him at the same time, but he supposed he deserves it. Harley was right, he is weak, he’s weak and doesn’t deserve to be kept around. Peter always thought that he was a burden on Tony and he never understood why the man had taken Peter in but hearing someone else say it meant that Peter can't be the only one who thinks he’s more trouble than he’s worth. Mr. Stark must think so too. 

The room felt small and suffocating as if it was squeezing the life out of him and Peter couldn’t stand it anymore. He couldn’t sit here in Mr. Stark's living room as if he belonged. He needed to get away, be anywhere but here. Peter moved on autopilot, he wasn’t even sure where he planned on going but he just kept walking and didn’t stop. 

It was around 10 p.m. but the streets of Manhattan were still full of people, it was a Friday so he couldn’t really expect anything else. New York was wide awake and loud as ever but all Peter wanted was quiet. He kept on walking until he got to the subway station, he ran through the station and jumped on the first train to Queens. Peter needed some familiarity he wanted to be in a place he felt like he belonged because right now Stark Tower was far far from that. 

Peter sat and stared out of the train window, looking blankly into the darkness. His face was blank and unreadable but his thoughts were spiraling out of control. He knows he should have called Tony and told him he was feeling like this but Mr stark was out with his family having a nice night, he didn’t need Peter ruining that. Something in the back of his head was saying that he wouldn’t be ruining it because Tony cares about him, a lot. But it was too quiet for Peter to hear right now.

Peter's body kept on moving in autopilot, even after he was off the subway and back onto the familiar streets of queens. He just kept walking and walking until he wasn’t actually moving anymore. His legs were rooted into the ground and he finally had to look up and take in his surroundings. 

Black iron bars of a gate was what he noticed first, then the distinct lack of people. He was nowhere near the center of Queens, the lack of tall buildings told him that much. At first, he was slightly confused as to why he would have walked so far out but then he realised exactly where he was. 

_ Riverview Cemetery  _

When Uncle Ben died May didn’t want him to be buried in some closed in overflowing graveyard right in the middle of town, she knew he would have hated it. So they buried him at Riverview Cemetery, it was in the edge of the city overlooking the river, There was a huge apple tree in the middle of the land and May always said that she could imagine Ben sitting under it and waiting for their visits. When May died, there was no argument about it, she had to be buried next to ben. Her headstone might not be as nice as his but Peter tried his best and he hopes that his aunt is happy with him. 

Peter slowly pushed open the gate and walked along the winding path towards where his aunt and uncle were buried. He and May used to visit Ben every month so Peter felt guilty for not having come here since May died. It was hard, May dying just reminded Peter of how much he had lost in life. First his parents, then Uncle Ben, all of the people he never managed to save as Spider-man and now his Aunt May. He must have been a serial killer or something in his past life to deserve this.

Their graves were in a secluded part of the cemetery, two of them right next to each other. The grass was overgrown and the trees cast shadows over the headstones. Peter sat cross-legged in front of them he was silent for a while but then everything caught up to him at once and he burst into tears. 

“Hey guys,” He sobbed “I don’t really know what I’m doing right now and I wish you were here to tell me what to do” 

His eyes blurred with tears and he couldn’t get his words out properly but he kept talking anyway 

“I’m living with Tony Stark now, yeah _the_ Tony Stark,” He laughed through his tears “I even have a little sister, you would have loved her May, she’s amazing. she adores me and I love her so much,” 

Peter wipes at his eyes harshly and sniffs trying to rein in his tears but it didn’t much work

“I’m trying really hard to be okay and not be sad all the time but it's not that easy. I hope you guys are happy wherever you are and that you are proud of me,” Peter choked back a painful sob “I’m sorry, I couldn’t save you both but that's in the past now and I know that you wouldn’t want me to think like that.”

Peter didn’t say anything else for a while, he just let himself cry. Cry for everything he’s lost and everything he’s loved. 

“I love you both so much, and i'll never _ever_ forget you,” he sniffled, his tears finally calming down. For once he felt relief as if he had just poured his heart out to the real May and Ben Parker. Things might not be great right now and it might take a while for them to be fully okay again but he could do it.

It was like May and Ben were there with him, letting him know that even though things were bad now they would get better and he would be okay. Peter shivered as the wind rushed past him and curled his arms around himself to try and keep warm. The grass tickled his ankles as he sat staring up at the sky. There weren’t many stars in New York but Peter still looked and eventually he drifted to sleep right there in the middle of the cemetery.

\--------------------

It didn’t take long for Tony to track down Peter, even though he didn’t have his phone on (Tony knows this because he tried to call it exactly 47 times before tracking it and realising that it was still in the tower) it wasn’t like he was worried, the kid could take care of himself. But he was a kid, an upset kid who was on his own in New York at night… okay so maybe Tony was a bit worried but he had every right to be. He just wanted Peter to be safe.

The Ironman suit closed around him and he flew into the air, over the Manhattan skyline and right to the edge of Queens. As he got closer he could see a peter shaped lump curled up on the ground in front of two gravestones. Carefully Tony lowered the suit to the ground and stepped out of it. 

Tony walks over to Peter and crouches as far down as he can in a three-piece Armani suit. He strokes his hand over Peter’s forehead and brushes his hair out of his face. Any onlooker would have no trouble spotting the look of absolute love and adoration that Tony feels for this kid. 

“Pete? its time to wake up bambino,” Tony speaks softly, not even noticing the Italian term he had added onto the end while shaking Peter’s shoulder a bit until he starts to come to.

“Tony?” He slurs, sleep still clouding his mind.

Tony smiles at him and starts lifting the boy and walking back towards the Ironman suit that was a few meters away. “Yeah it’s me kid, let's get you home,” 

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” he mumbled.

“It’s alright kid, I don’t care as long as you are okay,” Tony replied, setting peter down so he could step back into the suit.

“I’m okay Tony, really,” Peter sat up and crossed his legs underneath him, he watched as the iron suit encase Tony. Tony motioned with his hands for Peter to get up and come over to him. Then with Peter holding on tight, the pseudo father and son duo flew back home.

\--------------------

Peter woke up on Saturday morning not quite remembering how he got home. The room was cold even though it was nearing the end of March and the temperature should be rising. Peter threw off his covers and grabbed a random sweater off his chair before walking into the kitchen to see if anyone else was awake. 

He could hear two giggly voices coming from the room ahead, so he knew at least Morgan was up. He left the hall and walked out into the open space that was the kitchen. Peter smiled as he noticed Tony in a stupid apron waving a spatula around in Morgan’s face.

“Oh god, you’re not cooking breakfast are you,” Peter groaned hopping up onto a chair right next to Morgan.

“Petey!” She screeched happily.

Peter laughed and ruffled her hair up a bit “morning princess,” 

Morgan grins at him before going back to whatever she was doing. So peter turns to look at Tony and sees that he has an insulted look on his face, though Peter sees through it immediately and smiles up at him cheekily.

“Clearly you won’t want any if you think my cooking is so bad,” Tony chides back at him.

“That depends on how badly you burn it,” Peter deadpans trying not to let his amusement show through. 

Tony gasps and brings his hand up towards his heart, not realising that he still had the spatula in his hand so he ends up waking himself in the face with it. Peter thinks it’s the funniest thing he has ever seen and struggles to get in breaths between all the laughter. Morgan laughs along beside him, her childish giggle floating through the air and raising the mood tenfold 

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up you two,” Tony splutters while rubbing at his face but even he can’t keep a smile from creeping onto his face.

“Are you okay daddy?” Morgan manages to wheeze out in between her soft giggles.

“I’m alright Bambina,” He chuckles and turns back around to the stove. 

The pet name feels oddly familiar to Peter for some reason, he thinks about it for a second before realising it was what Tony called him last night. Tony had called him _‘bambino’_ while trying to wake him up. _They were basically the same word, right?_

“What’s that mean?” Peter wonders out loud.

“What’s what mean Pete?” Tony asks without turning around.

“Bambina,” Peter answers making sure to pronounce it correctly. 

“Oh, it's Italian for child but it’s used as a pet name quite often, for family and stuff.” Tony clarified. 

“Oh” Peter squeaked out; he was family. Peter thought of Tony as a father figure, even though he would never say it out loud, it was nice to know that the sentiment was somewhat returned.

“Voila!” Tony exclaimed while setting a stack of pancakes on the table “Friday?”

“Yes boss,” She replied immediately.

“Can you Tell Harley and Pepper that breakfast is ready?” He asks while grabbing fruit and syrup from the fridge.

“Of course sir,” 

Not long after Peter hears a set of footsteps coming towards them. Morgan quickly jumps out of her seat when she realises that it is her mum that’s coming and Pepper picks her up and comes back over to the table.

“Nice to see you haven’t burnt the kitchen down Tony,” She says while setting Morgan back down and pressing a soft kiss to the top of hers and Peter’s head. Peter mumbles a quick _‘morning’_ and flashes her a warm smile. She sets Morgan down and starts plating up breakfast for her and Morgan. 

“I’m really feeling the love in the kitchen right now,” Tony scowls and pepper laughs, moving round the kitchen to give him a good morning kiss.

Peter grabbed himself 4 waffles and them on a plate. Midway through him pouring far too much syrup over his waffles, Harley came into the kitchen. His hair was sticking up all over the place from not having been brushed yet. His tracksuit bottoms hung low on his hips and he had a dark vest top on. Peter kept his eyes down on his plate, not wanting to make anything even more awkward between the two of them.

Breakfast went by without any problems; it was nice actually. The domesticity of it all had Peter feeling warm inside. He was helping Tony wash up after breakfast when he suggested that he, Harley, and Peter have a lab day. Peter instantly agreed, he didn’t care that Harley was going to be there too, he was just excited to have a day in the lab with Tony. Peter rambled on about different things he could get Tony to help him with until they finished the dishes and Tony ushered him out of the kitchen with a fond smile.

\--------------------

Harley had been down in the lab with Tony and Peter for a couple of hours now, each of them working on their own projects, giving input into each other’s every now and then. He was working on the parts of his car he never finished the other day, getting tony to help him when he got stuck. Harley hadn’t had to speak to Peter directly which he was grateful for, he still felt guilty about yesterday. 

When Tony told Harley about Peter’s aunt he realised how shitty he’d been towards the boy. Maybe it shouldn’t have come down to dead relatives for Harley to realise he had to apologize to Peter but it did so that was clearly the wakeup call he needed. Harley had taken his pain out on someone who didn’t deserve it and while he may still be jealous of Tony and Peters bond he knows he needs to do the right thing for once.

“I need to go get something from upstairs real quick so I’m gonna have to leave you guys alone for a sec,” Tony told them, breaking the silence. “don’t blow anything up, please” He smirked before leaving the boys in the lab alone. 

Harley looked over to Peter and saw that he was still engrossed in his project, Harley wasn’t really sure what the younger boy was working on. _I guess now is a better time than ever_ he thought.

“Peter?” He called out and waited a few seconds before realising that he wasn’t going to get a response.

He walked a bit closer and tried again “Peter, can I talk to you?” still no answer “uh Peter?”

“Can you not tell that I’m trying to ignore you!” He snaps “what do you want?”

“Look, I wanted to apologise,” he started “for last night I mean.”

Peter looked taken aback for a second as if he wasn’t expecting it “Oh right,”

“It wasn’t cool of me to say those things and I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve it,” Harley said honestly hoping that the boy could tell he meant it.

“Thanks.” He replied “for your apology, I mean. I don’t know if I can forgive you for everything, you were kind of a dick but I accept your apology.” He looked up and smiled lightly at Harley.

“That’s all I could ask for.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading and i hope you enjoyed the chapter  
> sorry that this was a bit late but I wanted to make sure i'd read through it properly  
> feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think, I love to hear your feedback!  
> hope you are all staying happy and healthy <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley asks his mum for advice and he and Peter slowly start to become friends

Things were odd at first; Peter still wasn’t used to Harley actually trying to be nice to him and he couldn’t help but think the boy must have some kind of ulterior motive behind all of this, yet there was nothing Peter could show to back up his theory. They weren’t best friends but there wasn’t a horrible tension surrounding them anymore and that was… _nice_?

School was no different, Harley still hung around Flash. It’s not like Peter expected Harley to suddenly want to hang out with him at school, he had a reputation to uphold and Peter would just ruin that. Yet there was one thing Peter couldn’t let go, Harley was really sweet and he cared about people a lot. He first noticed it when they were in the lab late at night the other week.

_Both boys were down in Peter’s lab, a mutual agreement had been made that they would sit in silence, and work on their respective projects. No talking necessary. Peter was trying to fix one of his web-shooters that got damaged on Patrol last night. Harley still doesn’t know he’s Spider-man, just that he works on his gear. Peter wasn’t planning on telling him anytime soon though, they weren’t there yet._

_It was late, Mr. Stark hadn’t bothered to tell the boys to go to bed yet so they were planning on staying down there as late as they could. But the longer Peter sat fiddling with the mechanics on his shooter the more his eyes started to shut and his head started to droop until eventually, he had fallen asleep at his desk._

_Harley was across the lab working on some mechanical thing for Tony when he heard soft snores coming from somewhere in the lab. He looked up from his work and saw Peter fast asleep at his desk, he wiped his hand on a rag and then got up from the workbench._

_“Friday what time is it?” He called out while walking over to Peter._

_“The time is currently 1:43 am, Mr. Keener,” The AI replied helpfully._

_He sighed at the name but let it go as he went to put a hand on Peter's shoulder to wake him up but it wasn’t successful. ‘He can’t just sleep at his desk’ he thought. Then he remembered the couch that was in the corner of the lab, he carefully picked Peter up. He was scarily light considering how much he ate but Harley ignored that in favour of not waking Peter up. He slowly walks over to the ‘chill-out zone’ as Tony likes to call it, and lays Peter down onto the couch. Harley looks around for a second before his eyes land on a blanket, he grabs it and covers the smaller boy with it._

_Peter stirs for a second “H’rly?” He says still half asleep._

_Harley flushes red “uh yeah, go back to sleep Peter,” He manages to get out._

_“Okay, night Harley,” Peter buries himself further under the blanket and falls back asleep._

_“Night Peter,”_

When Peter woke up that morning Friday told him that Harley had carried him to the couch before going up to bed himself. Warmth had spread over Peter and his and Harley's relationship had shifted ever so slightly in the right direction. _I know Harley cares but why doesn’t he act that way at school_ He asked himself and that thought stuck with him.

\--------------------

Harley wasn’t really sure what to do, he knows that his and Peter's relationship shifted slightly since that night in the lab but Peter still seems cautious around him like he thinks Harley is just going to up and leave. Harley probably could be doing better but he doesn’t know how. Flash still won't leave him alone at school and is annoying as ever but the one good thing to come of that is that for the past two weeks he has managed to steer Flash away from Peter and his friends though sometimes there was just nothing he could do and he had to sit and watch as flash verbally abused Peter.

He wanted Peter to know that he meant that he had said about being sorry so he called the only person that would know what to do, his ma. That turned out to be a bad idea… only at first though.

“Harley James Keener, you did what?!,” His ma asked down the phone, sounding extremely disappointed and annoyed at the same time.

“I ditched him at a coffee shop the second day we met, then recently we had an argument and I called him weak for getting bullied,” Harley repeated shamefully. He knows how hypocritical what he had said had been considering his past and his ma knew it as well.

“And you now expect this boy to be friends with you?” She said as if it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

“Well I apologised, and I know what I did was awful ma, but I’m trying to right it and it's not working,” Harley sighed, laying down on his bed and putting his ma on speakerphone.

“Actions speak louder than words, you need to prove to him that you actually want to be his friend,” Macy told him.

“But I don’t know if I want to be his friend, I just need to make this right. Sometimes it still feels like Tony replaced me with this kid,” Harley admitted “an after everything back home… I dunno, it just sucks.”

“You know it's not like that at all baby, Rosehill was too good for you and you are gonna do wonderful things but you’ll also make mistakes.” Macy didn’t want her boy to be in pain but she knows that Harley needs time to heal from past pains and maybe making a new friend could help “Get to know him and even if you don’t end up being best friends, just let him know that you are there for him if he wants it. God knows the poor boy needs it,”

“Okay ma, thanks and ‘m sorry,”

“You just make it up to that boy okay, and don’t make it feel like pity because I will come up there and sort you out.” Macy threatened and Harley believed it.

“I will ma,” Harley didn’t know why he felt so determined to make it up to peter but he was gonna do it even if it is the last thing he does.

He and his ma talked for a while, catching up on everything else that was going on in their lives. He doesn’t miss rose hill but he sure as hell misses his family. After their call, Harley spends a few hours brainstorming ways he could get to know Peter better when it hits him. _omg, this is a great idea!_ He thinks while doing a little dance for finally figuring it out. That night he goes to bed with a smile on his face.

\--------------------

The next Saturday Harley decides to put his plan into action, at 10:00 am he knocks on Peter’s door and as soon as the other boy opens it he feels all his previous confidence leave his body.

“Uh hi, I was wondering if you want to come into town with me and maybe show me some cool spots,” Harley asks nervously “you know because the first time didn’t go so well.” He adds on but regrets it as soon as it is out of his mouth.

But a small smile takes over Peter’s face “I'd love too, gimme like twenty minutes to get ready then we can go, okay?”

“Oh, yeah that’s great, I’ll see you in twenty,” Harley can’t help but smile along with Peter, happy that the boy didn’t outright refuse his request.

“See you in twenty,” Peter confirms and then turns back into his room shutting the door behind him.

\--------------------

Twenty minutes later the two boys were in Harley’s car driving into the center of New York, driving was the long route but Harley really didn’t want to have to get the subway so he was dealing with it. The roads in New York were nothing like in Rosehill and he liked that, tall buildings surrounded either side of him and there were people everywhere. He and Peter had decided to go to this science museum that Peter had been wanted to go to for ages. Harley was good at science but mechanics had always been his favourite, still, he was excited to see what it was like, he’d never really been to a proper museum before.

When he admitted that to Peter, the shock on the boy’s face was hilarious.

“What do you mean you’ve never been to a museum!?” He asked feigning outrage.

“There aren’t many world-class museums in Rosehill darlin’,” He laughed keeping his eyes trained on the road even though they weren’t really moving anywhere.

“Your gonna love it trust me! There’s this whole exhibit about the recent advancements made in nanotech and how it could even be used it the medical world,” Peter explained, his eyes lighting up with excitement that Harley couldn’t help but share.

He was right though, Harley did love it, every second of it, and having Peter explain each exhibit to him with more information that he could intake was the cherry on top. They were now on their way to this small ice cream parlour that Peter told him had ‘the best rocky road ice cream’ and Harley was going to hold him to that. 

The parlour was quiet when they entered, only one other couple was seated inside. Harley told Peter to sit while he went and ordered their ice cream, it didn’t take long and soon Harley was walking back to their table with two rocky road ice creams in hand.

“Holy shit Pete, this actually is the best ice cream!” Harley exclaimed after taking his first bite.

Peter laughed “Told you so!”

“So tell me something about yourself, we’ve been living in the same house for about a month now and I barely know anything about you,” Harley asked after they had stopped laughing.

“Um well okay” Peter paused to eat some more of his ice cream “I really like Star Wars,”

“More of a Star Trek guy myself,” Harley commented.

Peter looked offended as Harley told him that “you what?”

“Yeah, I never really understood the hype surrounding it, to be honest,” He continued as if he hadn’t just said the worse thing Peter could have imagined, maybe he was being dramatic but he was allowed when it comes to Star Wars

“I can’t believe I’m friends with someone who doesn’t like Star Wars!” Peter exclaims, waving his hands around in a similar fashion to Tony when he gets worked up.

“I never said I didn’t like it!” Harley paused peter's words finally catching up to him “we’re friends?”

Peter looks down and an embarrassed blush spreads over his face “well yeah, unless you don’t want to be and that’s totally cool.” he rambles

“I’d like to be friends,” Harley blurts out before thinking but he doesn’t need to think about it Peter is almost impossible to hate now that Harley knows him a bit better and it makes him feel even worse about the way he acted before.

“Okay,” Peter smiles at him and a silence falls over them but it's not awkward like before, its calm,

Then Peter remembers what they were talking about before “Star Wars is so much better than Star Trek!”

Harley laughs louder than he has in a long time.

\--------------------

Monday morning came too soon and the boys were back at school. Harley was really enjoying school for once, everything about it was great. Everything except Flash. Their lunch table was packed as usual and flash was telling some story about how he stopped a mugging at the weekend, which Harley knew was utter bullshit. He was so close to telling Flash to shut up but he couldn’t so he sat and listened while on the inside he was shouting every swear under the sun.

“So then I was like ‘you better leave man or your not gonna like what happens’ the guy didn’t get the hint so I punched him round the jaw so hard he instantly was knocked out,” some _woahs_ came from the girls sat at the table, he didn’t know that people who go to a stem school could be so stupid. “Yeah, it was pretty badass,”

Harley rolled his eyes and looked away from the table around the cafeteria; there were people everywhere each able holding a different group of teens. Harley looked around uninterested until his eyes landed on a particular table in the back of the hall. He saw peter smiling widely and laughing at a joke Ned had just said, even MJ had a small smile on her face which, he had learned, was rare. Harley glanced back at his own table, internally groaning at the jealousy he felt towards Peter and his friends.

_Why can’t I have that?_ He asked himself before realising that he could, he and Peter were friends. Yeah, they hadn’t hung out much in school but he was sure that Peter wouldn’t turn him away. _Fuck it_ he thought, quickly grabbing his bag and getting up from the table without a word.

“Hey, Keener! Where the fuck are you going?” Flash yelled out getting up and following him.

Harley just kept walking until he got to Peter's table, but before he could ask to sit Flash grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.

“Is Parker your boyfriend or something? Why the fuck would you want to sit with him,” Flash spat and Harley flinched at the boyfriend comment.

Flash noticed it though and it only seemed to spur him on “Is that it? He get down on his knees and suck your cock?”

And suddenly it was as if he was back in Rosehill, pushed up against the back of the school. Slur after slur being thrown at him which hurt almost as much as the punches.

“I bet you fucking enjoy it too, don’t you?” Flash carries on and Harley doesn’t know how to stop it so he does the only thing that he knows works, he fights.

Peter seeming to sense his fist before he even swings tries to stop him “Harley,” He pleads but Harley shrugs him too stuck in his memories to back down.

Flash stands there smirking as if he’s figured it all out and before Harley can think better of it, he punches Flash straight round the jaw sending him flying to the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter  
> Peter and Harley are friends now! I'd love to hear what you guys think of this chapter, your comments give me the motivation to continue writing  
> Also if you haven't seen, I posted a Peter x Harley one-shot based off the song 'Heather' by Conan Gray and id love it if you guys could go check it out! its call 'the spaces between my fingers are where yours fit perfectly' but you should just be able to find it on my page  
> next chapter coming Monday or Tuesday!  
> Thanks again for reading and I hope you are all staying happy and healthy <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley gets suspended, has an argument and lets down his walls a bit

Harley’s shoes squeaked against the floor as he scuffed his feet back and forth. He could just about make out the muffled voices of principal Mortia and Tony talking. Flash and his parents are long gone, having spoken to the principal and Flash was let off with a warning. Because of course, he was. Harley started the fight, he threw the punch, Flash didn’t do anything.

He hasn’t been able to talk to Peter since the whole thing and honestly, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to. After what happened in the cafeteria he didn’t know what Peter was gonna think of him. He knows Tony is disappointed in him, no doubt about that. He had promised not to get in anymore fights and now look where he is, sat outside the principles office waiting for Tony to get out. 

He and Flash got pulled apart pretty quickly after Harley threw the first punch but Flash did manage to get one or two hits in. so not only was Harley probably going to get suspended he also was sporting a pretty nice shiner on the left side of his face.

It wasn’t much longer before Tony was exiting Principal Mortia’s office and silently gesturing for Harley to get up and follow him. The walk to his car was awkward and tense, Tony still hadn’t said anything and Harley was starting to dread the moment he would.

Tony’s bright red sports car looked obnoxious in the middle of the school's parking lot and Harley wanted to be anywhere but in there yet he had no other choice so he quickly got in the car and slammed the door behind him, maybe a bit too hard. Tony ignored it though and got in after him, he went to go and start the car but then his movements faltered and he pulled back his hand

“The Thompsons wanted to press charges, you know,” Tony started and Harley could already feel this turning into something he didn’t want to deal with “you’re lucky that I am who I am otherwise they probably could have,”

Harley's eyes were trained to the floor of the car “Thanks,” he said dryly still not looking up.

“I thought we said no more fights, Harley. This is a good school, a good opportunity for you but if you keep on like this you’ll waste it,” Tony stressed, this whole ‘being a responsible adult’ stuff was overrated.

“Do you even know why I punched him?” Harley asked, starting to get annoyed.

“Do I need to? What was it then, some sort of popularity thing? You want people to think you’re some sort of bad boy?” Tony hypothesised “because I know you aren’t like that kid and yet you’ve been suspended for the rest of the week, so do you wanna explain?” 

“You know what, just drop it,” He bit out.

“Kid I’m not trying to have a go at you,” Tony tried.

“I said drop it!” harshness was clouding his voice now.

Tony looked like he wanted to say more but decided against it. He started the car and drove them back to the tower, the atmosphere tense and uninviting the whole way there.

\--------------------

“Pep. I don’t know what to do, he won't even tell me why he started the fight,”

It was night now. Tony and Pepper had put Morgan to bed and were now sitting in their own room, talking like they do every night, except the topic was a little more frustrating tonight.

“Maybe he thinks you’ll be disappointed in him,” she pointed out.

“But I won’t be, I know that Thompson kid is a little shit. Maybe he shouldn’t have punched him but the other kid probably deserved it.”

Tony didn’t feel like he was cut out for this, dealing with a 5-year-old was a lot simpler than dealing with an 18-year-old and all of their teenage angst. Maybe he shouldn’t have said some of that stuff to Harley earlier but he just wanted him to talk to him, help him understand because he really doesn’t. He knows that Harley didn’t have the best life in Rosehill but he didn’t know the reasons why Macy said Harley would tell him when he was ready but when would that be? He just wanted to be there for the boy.

“Maybe he did but you are just gonna have to wait until Harley tells you,” Pepper replied, “just make sure he knows that you care for him no matter what, I think that’s the most important thing for him right now.”

“Yeah, I guess you are right.” Tony sighed and lay down, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about everything that had happened today. Eventually, his eyes felt too heavy to stay open and he drifted off to sleep.

\--------------------

Peter couldn’t sleep, he had been trying for hours but it seemed that this was just one of those nights that it wasn’t going to work for him. He decided that instead of just lying in his bed hoping he’d somehow fall asleep he would do something productive and go and work in the lab. Quietly he left his room and padded down the hall and into the elevator. The elevator floor was cold against his feet and it made him shiver lightly on the way down.

Before he even set foot in his lab he could tell someone else was in there but they weren’t dangerous so Peter put in the code and walked in. In the corner of the lab, Harley was sat up against the wall with a hologram of some car part illuminated in front of him.

“Harley?” He called and the boy in question jumped.

“Oh! Peter, uh sorry I know this is your lab but I couldn’t sleep and my stuff was on here so I just thought that I could come in here and work but I can leave if you want” Harley rambled.

“I wouldn’t have given you the code if I didn’t want you down here,” Peter pointed out and went to sit down near him “whatcha working on?”

“I’m designing parts to build myself a motorbike,” He explained while switching the hologram to show Peter all the different parts.

“That’s so cool Harley!” Peter exclaimed.

A blush spread across the older boys face and he looked down at the floor “thanks,”

The two boys sat in comfortable silence for a while, Peter watched Harley work on his bike design but his mind couldn’t stop going back to what had happened at school earlier today. He hadn’t managed to talk to Harley and he didn’t really know where to start but I guess he has to try something.

“I’m sorry about what Flash said to you,” He eventually decided on.

Harley froze for a second but then continued working on his design “Why are you sorry for what he did?”

“Well I guess it was my fault, he makes fun of my sexuality all the time so I’m used to it,” Peter explains shamefully.

“What?”

“I hope that me being bi isn’t a problem, I can make sure everyone knows we aren’t actually going out but I like being friends with you so I don’t want this to change things.”

 _That’s why he thinks I got mad? Because Flash said that we were going out_ Harley thought.

“Why on earth would that change anything darlin’?” Harry asked incredulously. 

“I dunno, I guess I just thought… I don’t know what I thought really” Peter admitted.

“You know it's not the first time I’ve started fights over shit like that Peter,” Harley told him finally looking up from his work. 

“What do you mean?” Peter asked confused.

“I wasn’t very liked back home, Rosehill wasn’t the most accepting so when someone _different_ comes along they don’t like it that much,” Harley explains.

“Different as in…” Peter trails off leaving the question open for Harley to answer.

“Yeah,” He says simply but Peter knew what he meant.

“Oh.” 

“It's not like it should bother me anymore, I’m used to it,” Harley explained laughing but it held no humour “But he was insulting you at the same time and I can deal with it when it's me but not when its other people especially if I care about them”

“I care about you to, so when you say that you are used to that shit, it upsets me,” Peter said softly “you moved to get away from this and now because your my friend it's happening again.” Peter couldn’t look at Harley anymore, he felt really bad. Harley shouldn’t have to deal with that because of him.

“Hey, it's not your fault okay. I started the fight with Flash even though I shouldn’t have. You can’t blame yourself for the things he said.” 

“Then neither can you,” Peter challenged.

“Fine, but I’m pretty sure Tony blames me so, there’s not much I can do about that.” Harley sighed remembering back to the argument in the car. 

“If you explained the whole story I’m sure he’d understand,” Peter reasoned.

“Yeah but then I'd have to tell him everything and I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” He admitted.

“He won’t care, I was terrified when I came out to him but he told me that it was okay and that he’d love me no matter what, so why would it be any different for you?”

Peter had come out to Tony about a year and a half ago after months of May telling him that it’d be fine, nothing would change and his friends (mainly MJ) reassuring him that if Tony had a problem with it they would go and give him a piece of their minds. It felt good to tell him, like a weight had finally been lifted off of his shoulders. May was right nothing changed between them the only thing different was that Peter felt as if they were ever so slightly closer straying from just a mentor/mentee relationship into something stronger.

“Maybe one-day Darlin’ but not yet,” Harley decided. It was a huge thing to him and right now he just wasn’t ready to open up that part of his life to Tony. He doesn’t know why he ended up telling Peter, maybe its because he knows what it's like or maybe Peter is the first person he feels like he can actually be himself with, either way, it was nice being close with the younger boy.

Harley pulled up his holograms again and started putting on the finishing touches to his designs, peter just sat there and watched him work. The soft blue light from the hologram illuminating his features making the bruise on his face look way worse than it actually was. _That must hurt a lot_ Peter thought. He guesses that he’s quite lucky that he has enhanced healing and that bruises and scrapes don’t last long on his body, he wouldn’t want to walk around with something like that on his face.

“Your gonna have to do something about that bruise on your face, with all that leather you wear you might start looking like your part of the Italian mob.” Peter jokes and Harley laughs loudly a grin spreading across his face.

“I’d be a sexy mobster,” He states factually.

“You would be a terrible mobster, your wayyyyyy too caring and your face is too nice, you’re not hard enough to be in the mob.” Peter points out exaggeratedly, his grin matching Harleys.

“I think that’s you were talkin’ about darlin’, I’m the baddest bitch around,” Harley jokes back but his stomach fills with butterflies thinking about how Peter had complimented him.

“Suuuure you are,” He says and goes to continue but gets cut off by a yawn. “I guess being around you has made me tired,” He laughs at his own joke but gets cut off by yet another yawn.

Harley checks the time on his phone, _4:03,_ the time reads “You should go get some sleep Peter, you have school in the morning.”

“So do you,” Peter points out.

“Actually no, I got suspended for the rest of the week,” Harley corrects.

“What! That’s so dumb,” Peter grumbled.

“Yeah I suppose, but it's only 3 days, I can just spend it in the lab.” He reasons “Now come on you need sleep,”

Peter whines but gets up anyway, Harley shuts down all of his equipment and leads Peters out of the lab, locking the door behind them. He could feel the events of the day catching up to him as they were in the elevator, his face hurt and he was really tired. All of the anger from earlier was gone, replaced with hurt from what flash had said and also his and Tony’s argument in the car. _I’ll have to talk to him tomorrow_ he decided.

When the boys finally got to their rooms Harley felt ready to face plant into his bed and pass out. Peter looked about the same, not having realised how tired he actually was.

“Night Harley, ill see you in the morning yeah?” Peter said right Before going into his room.

“Yeah, night Darlin’,” Harley replied softly then he shut his door, got in bed, and promptly fell into a deep sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thanks so much for reading! I'm sorry this chapter is a bit late, I broke my laptop charger and could only get a new one today  
> I hope you liked this chapter and getting to see Peter and Harley's relationship develop that little bit more  
> Please feel free to leave kudos or a comment, they really motivate me too keep writing  
> Thanks again for reading and I hope you are all staying happy and healthy <3


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Harley talk, Peter walks in on the most adorable moment and movies nights are planned

Wednesday was mostly uneventful for Harley, Peter left for school before he even woke up. Same with Pepper and Morgan. Pepper had dropped Morgan off at school then went to work herself. This meant that it was only Tony and Harley in the tower. So he just decided to spend most of his day in the lab, it’s not that he was actively avoiding Tony but the opportunity to talk to him just hadn’t presented itself. He knew he needed to but at the same time, he felt like Tony should come and apologise to him as well, so he just stayed in the lab all day.

With the help of Friday, he was able to start making the first parts of his bike. It was going to be blue and silver, Harley also wanted to make it go as fast as legally possible. That was one of the only things he missed about Rosehill, all the space and freedom to just ride around. No traffic or people to get in the way, he could just get on his bike and ride around for a while, forgetting that everybody in his town hated him and that he’d never truly be accepted there.

It was stupid to be thinking about that stuff now, he was starting a new chapter of his life and yet the thoughts still crept in. He shook himself out of his head and got up. His back ached from being hunched over the desk for the past few hours, he stretched out his body and was about to get back to work when he heard the door of Peter’s lab open. Tony walked in and shut the door behind him and apprehensively walked over to Harley.

“Hey kid,” Tony lent against the desk Harley was working at and looked over his work.

“Hey, old man,”

“So, we should probably talk right?” the air surrounding them was awkward and that was weird to Harley, it had never been like this between the two of them but Harley wasn’t that 11-year-old kid, that idolised everything that Tony did, anymore. He knew the man had his flaws and so did Harley, maybe they were too alike for their own goods.

“Yeah I guess we should,” Harley replied quietly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t let you explain the other day, I should have let you talk instead of assuming things,” Tony admitted honestly. He truly did feel bad and after the talk with Pepper and the time he had to think it over Tony realised that the things he said hadn’t helped. They probably made the boy less inclined to talk to him.

A small smile was on Harley's face now, “I’m sorry too, I didn’t even try with you and I want to be able to explain why I did what I did but I don’t think I’m ready to tell you everything because that would open up a lot that I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to talk about.”

“That’s perfectly okay, kid, just know that I’m not mad at you for yesterday.” Tony reassured him with a smile, “yes I’m a tad annoyed at you getting suspended but I know that you wouldn’t have started that fight for no reason, you’re not like that anymore.”

“Thanks, Tony, it means a lot.” Harley didn’t really know what to say after that, he’d never been good at this sort of thing but it seemed as is Tony understood and was the exact same. That was reassuring.

“Don’t mention it. Now tell me, what’s this you’ve been working on?” Tony asked.

Harley began to excitedly explain the plans he had for his bike, the colours, the speed and tony listened to every word. He helped Harley iron out any kinks and faults that needed fixing. They worked together until Friday informed them that Morgan needed picking up from school. Tony went to get her while Harley tinkered around some more with his bike parts.

Tony and Morgan were soon home enough and Tony decided that they should get a head start on dinner before Peter and Pepper got home. So he called Harley upstairs to help, which really means that Harley is going to do most of the work while Tony messed around with Morgan under the rouse of helping.

It was nice though; cooking gave Harley a sense of domesticity that he hadn’t really felt since he moved out of his hometown. It reminded him of nights with Abby when their ma was working late. He would always cook dinner while she sang along to whatever music she’d decided was the mood for that night. This was a bit different though, but not a bad different, a different he could easily get used to.

The rest of the night was great; when Pepper and Peter got home they ate and talked about their days. Harley told Peter about his plans to get his bike to go as fast a legally possible and he didn’t look too pleased.

“Harley you can’t do that!” He exclaimed.

“Why not darlin’?” Harley questioned, not seeing that much of an issue with his challenge.

“You could get seriously hurt! Do you even know how many people die from riding motorbikes?” Peter fretted, not at all liking the idea of Harley speeding down the roads of New York at 200mph

“Its fine, I’ve never crashed a bike in my life,” Harley tried to reassure him.

“That’s not very reassuring Harley!” He pouted but dropped the subject and continued to eat.

Overall it had been a pretty good first day of suspension. Even though his and Tony’s talk wasn’t some big profound moment full of feelings and chick flic moments it was enough for him and he was happy that things were starting to settle down and look up.

\--------------------

Thursdays were always Peter’s least favourite days; he doesn’t really have a reason they just suck. He wished he could be doing something other than sitting learning about things he already knew and avoiding people he didn’t like but it was necessary no matter how much he would rather be swinging around new York or working in the lab with Harley.

His lessons went by in a blur and by the time he was walking to decathlon practice he was about ready to fall asleep. He couldn’t miss practice though MJ would probably murder him. He took his seat and MJ soon started the meeting, firing questions at the team one after the other.

“Who was the earliest known theorist to discuss economics?”

Abe’s bell rang out “Adam Smith.”

“Correct!” MJ exclaimed, “what would be the most effective way of combating a virus?”

Betty quickly pressed her bell “By disrupting the virions nucleic acid, plasma membrane, or its nucleus,”

“Yes, Betty!” She praised “What is Adenocarcinoma?”

Peters hand quickly flew out and he tapped his bell (maybe a tad too hard) “Adenocarcinoma is a cancer derived from glands found in the epithelial tissue,”

“Correct Peter, well done,”

The questions continued on like this, the team getting the majority of them correct which was reliving as they had been studying them for weeks now. The practice eventually ended and Peter packed up his bag and left the school with Ned and MJ at his side.

“Hey, so I was thinking we could have a movie night at my place this weekend” Ned suggested.

“Yeah! We haven’t had one in ages,” Peter cheered.

“I’m down,” MJ said while smiling.

“Awesome I’ll message you guys later!” Ned called while walking towards his mum's car.

MJ started to walk towards her dad's car but then she turned and stopped “you should invite Harley.” She stated simply then turned and left.

Peter laughed and made a mental note to ask Harley about it when he got in. He had to get the subway home today as Happy was off so he quickly made his way to the station so he didn’t miss the next train. The ride was short and uneventful and sooner than later Peter was chucking his bag down in the living room and making his way towards Harley's room to see if he was in there.

He knocked on the door lightly but there was no answer, he was about to knock again but he heard soft giggles from Morgan’s room. _Two heartbeats_ peter thought _He must be in there_. Peter walked down the hall towards the girl's room but nothing could prepare him for the adorableness of the scene laid out in front of him.

Harley was sat on the floor, Morgan cross-legged in front of him. He was talking to her in multiple funny voices, most likely telling her a story, while his hands were gently plaiting her hair into two identical French braids. Neither person had noticed Peter standing against the doorway, mentally aweing at the sight in front of him. Morgan’s laughter filled the room, the high pitchiness of her voice contrasted so perfectly with Harley's deep southern drawl.

“Hey, you two,” Peter called out after a while

Morgan’s head shot up and a huge smile took over her face as she saw Peter “Petey!” She exclaimed happily.

“Hey lil’ missy, stop all that wrigglin’ or your plait is gonna be all wonky,” Harley scolds lightly.

“Sorry Harls,” She says and sits still while he finishes her plait.

“Ooo you’ve got a nickname now,” Peter points out “She never letting you go now,”

Harley laughs lightly while tying off the end of her plait with a hairband and tapping her thigh softly to signal that he was finished and she could get up. She jumped up immediately grabbing Harley’s hand before he even had the chance to stand up properly. Morgan dragged him over to the door with all the strength that a 5-year-old possessed, then she grabbed Peter's hand and pulled them both into the living room to watch cartoons. The three of them sat down, Peter and Harley on the couch and Morgan on the floor in front.

“Your really good at that hair thing, where did you learn how to do it?” Peter asked Harley quietly after Morgan had settled into watching the tv.

“My ma taught me so I could do Abby’s hair when she couldn’t,” Harley told him.

“I used to wish I had a younger sibling but then Morgan came along and even though she’s not blood, she still my sister,” Peter told Harley fondly and the older boy smiled.

All three of them were quiet for a while, enjoying each other’s company while watching Morgan’s favourite cartoon. She was sitting behind the coffee table; colouring book open in front of her but she was more focused on the show playing on the tv. Peter still remembers when he first met Morgan, she was so damn tiny and he thought that he might break her. But he didn’t, Tony carefully placed her in Peter's arms, reminding him to support her head. She wrapped her tiny fingers around one of his and Peter knew that he would protect her with his life if he had to. He loved her so much, he couldn’t even explain it. As she got older his fondness for her only grew, even though she could be a little shit sometimes ( _She gets it from her father_ Pepper says) Peter would never stop loving her.

He was content in just sitting and watching whatever Morgan wanted until Pepper or Tony came to get them for dinner. He and Harley had slowly gravitated towards each other and Peter was now leaning against him. It was comfortable and Harley wasn’t complaining so he stayed there not moving until he remembered something he was supposed to ask the older boy. He shifted slightly and tilted his head up until he was looking at Harley.

“Harley?” he called out quietly.

“Yeah,” the other boy was now facing Peter as well, a small smile on his face.

“Ned wants to have a movie night at his place this weekend and MJ told me to invite you,” he explained “Do you want to come?”

“Oh, are you sure? I don’t wanna intrude on you and your friends night, darlin’,” Harley asked anxiously. He had never really spoken to Ned or MJ and he was pretty sure that they wouldn’t like him after what he did to Peter.

“You won’t I promise! It’d be so fun if you were there,” Peter reassured him, he really wanted Harley to come. Then he’d be able to meet his friends and Peter knew that once they got to know each other they would get along great.

“Alright, if your sure, I’ll come,” Harley gave in, it really wasn’t much of a fight though. He did want to go; he was just anxious about it. But the look on Peter's face when he agreed was enough to get Harley to go to a million movie nights.

Peter's face broke out into a wide smile and he started animatedly talking about how great it was going to be and that maybe MJ would let them watch Star Wars so Harley could see how much better it was. Harley nodded along, smiling, not really saying much. He was just happy to listen to Peter talk.

It was strange feeling like this, They’d only been friends for like a month but Harley wanted to be around him all the time. Was that bad? He didn’t really understand what he was feeling, but he did know one thing, It was nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and all of its adorable domesticity   
> Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you thought, I love reading through them all.  
> i hope you are all staying happy and healthy, new chapter next monday <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Harley are soft for each other and MJ tells you what you need to know.

“Harleyyyyyyyyy,” Peter called out for the third time that morning. He and the older boy had woken up annoyingly early for a Saturday and had decided to play Mario Kart. What Peter had failed to mention was that he was extremely good at the game therefore, beating Harley 7 to 1. He is now ignoring Peter and has been for the past 5 minutes after claiming that he had cheated throughout the whole game.

“Harley I’m sorryyy,” Peter tried again but the other boy just sat there. Harley had his arms crossed and his face tilted up in a dramatic huff stance. Peter had to stop himself from laughing as he came up with a plan to get Harley to talk to him.

Peter curled into the opposite end of the couch and stayed quiet for a minute, then when he sensed Harley glancing over at him curiously, he started making quiet sniffing sounds, imitating soft crying. It wasn’t long before Harley was making his way over to Peter so he decided to ramp up the fake crying just a little more.

“Woah, woah, hey,” He says softly “I ain’t really mad at you darlin’,” Harley tried to get Peter to look at him but it doesn’t work. Peter mumbles something incoherent and curls into himself further while trying not to laugh. It made his stomach feel weird hearing the care in Harley's voice, a warm and fuzzy feeling was overtaking his brain but he quickly snapped himself out of it when he heard the other boy start speaking again.

“Come on darlin’ just look at me,” Harley pleads and Peter decides to comply, wiping under his eyes as he lifts his face to get rid of the ‘tears’, putting on his best sad face then finally making eye contact with Harley. He’s surprised he didn’t break as soon as he looked at him, he’d never been a very good liar.

“I’m sorry I upset you, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?” Harley asked his voice still holding that soft concerned tone that made Peter want to melt.

“Maybe next time don’t be such a sore loser,” Peter suggested, starting off quiet but losing the façade as he got to the end of the sentence unable to keep the mischievous grin off of his face. Harley's face went from confused to shocked to betrayed over the span of 30 seconds.

“You’re such a little shit, Peter!” He exclaimed which set the boy in question into a fit of laughter. Harley sat in disbelief until He too started laughing hysterically.

This is how Pepper found them five minutes later when she and Morgan came down to get breakfast ready, sat as close as possible to each other while laughing hysterically. She smiled knowingly to herself _those boys are good for each other_ she thought _._ Their happiness was contagious, even though she didn’t know what they were laughing at (they had stopped now and were sat at the breakfast bar chatting with Morgan) she couldn’t help but smile fondly at the three children sat in front of her.

She remembers when Peter first moved into the tower and the nights her and tony spent talking and trying to figure out how to get the boy to smile again. It a short amount of time Peter had found a space in Pepper's heart and even though he and her weren’t as close as Tony and Peter were, she loves that boy like a son and would do anything to keep the smile on his face.

\--------------------

Breakfast went quickly but was full of smiles and laughter. Not long after Tony, Peter and Harley made their way down to Tony’s lab. Peter went to his desk and started getting all the chemicals he needed to make more web fluid, he realised he was running low when he went on patrol last night and he didn’t want to be caught with.

He thought he was going to have to stop openly working on his spider stuff when Harley first moved in, he didn’t want him connecting the dots and figuring out that Peter is actually a vigilante that swings around in spandex. But Tony told Harley that before Peter moved in he was Tony’s intern and helped him work on avengers gear. So now Peter was free to work on his stuff normally.

Peter sat at his desk, humming along to the quiet music that was floating through the lab. Tony wasn’t allowed to blast rock music when Peter was in here with him anymore as it made his ears ring and his head pound. So they made a playlist of songs that they both like that they put on anytime they did lab work together.

Across the lab, Tony and Harley were putting the engine into Harley's bike. Tony had helped him work out all the schematics and they are using the same technology that Tony uses for his Ironman suits to put the bike together. They carefully lowered the engine in and made quick work of attaching all the necessary parts. They hold their breaths as Tony goes to turn on the bike, the engine rumbles a few times before roaring to life.

“Yes!” Harley exclaims high fiving Tony as he admires his work. Peter hears the commotion and crosses the lab towards the others wanting to see what was going on.

Harley notices him coming over and reaches out to pull him closer “look! I finally finished it!” He shows off his bike to Peter “and I’m sure its gonna go at least 210mph,”

Peter lets out a squeak of discomfit “210?!”

“Yeah, isn’t that great,” Harley says excitedly not realising Peter's distaste to the idea even though they had a conversation about it a couple of days ago.

“Harley, can’t you lower it?” Peter asks concerned.

“Aw come on Peter, it’s gonna be so cool and I won’t get hurt I promise,” Harley holds his pinkie out to lock it with Peter’s for a pinkie promise but he doesn’t take it.

“But you can’t promise that I don’t want you dying in some dumb motorcycle accident!” he stressed.

“I’ll be fine darlin’,” Harley says softly while uncrossing Peter's arms and holding them near him. Peter lent into the touch, the two of them have become quite affectionate lately and Peter wasn’t complaining he’d always loved hugs and casual touching.

“What if you lowered it to 140?” Peter asks him hopefully.

“140!” He repeats as if Peter was asking him to do something outrageous.

“Please?” Peter whines looking up at Harley with worry in his eyes.

“200.” Harley states.

“160,” Peter tries standing up straight and staring Harley straight in the eye.

“185,” Harley challenges again, but something inside him tells him he’s not going to win.

“175,” Peter says with an air of finality in his voice and Harley tries to stand his ground but eventually he gave into Peter and his persuasion.

“Fine darlin’ you win, I'll lower it to 175, but I hope you know I’m not happy about this,” He complains.

Peter smiles widely, happy that he had won the fight, then he waves goodbye to Tony and makes his way out of the lab. Harley turns around and looks at Tony who has an amused look on his face.

“ _Darlin’,”_ he mimics in an awfully bad southern accent.

“Shut up old man and help me lower the speed,” He mumbles before turning back to his bike. Tony just chuckles and follows Harley’s lead.

\--------------------

It was now the late afternoon and Peter was getting ready to go over to neds. There were 3 rules for movie nights:

Rule 1: must wear pyjamas or other comfortable clothes

Rule 2: everybody has to bring some sort of snack

Rule 3: NO SPOILERS

Peter had explained these rules to Harley earlier and the two had decided that they would bring a couple of bags of sour patch kids as they were Peter and Harleys favourite movie snack so they always had some in the tower. Happy was taking the two of them over to Neds so they were just waiting until he arrived. Peter was in his hello kitty pyjamas bottoms and an old hoodie, his typical movie attire. Harley was standing in his doorway; he had decided to put on some joggers and a loose-fitting tank top that left nothing to the imagination. Peter didn’t want to admit that he was finding it hard not to stare.

“Boys Mr. Hogan is waiting for you in the garage he says to hurry up and get down there,” Friday informs them

“Tell him we are on our way down,” Harley calls out then grabs their stuff and makes his way towards the elevator. Peter follows behind, calling out a goodbye to Tony, Pepper, and Morgan then getting in the elevator alongside Harley.

\--------------------

“Thanks for the ride Happy!” Peter called as he shuts the door.

“No problem kid, have fun,” Happy says then drives off, leaving the two outside of Ned's building.

They walk up to the door and buzz his floor, a few seconds later the intercom buzzes back and Ned tells them to come up. They quickly go up and join Ned and MJ in Ned's living room, it was decked out with blankets and there were snacks piled on the coffee table. Harley set down what they had brought.

“Hey, thanks for inviting me guys,” Harley said earnestly sending an anxious smile their way.

“Its no Problem man,” Ned answered back.

MJ just shot him a half-smile “you and Peter are on the couch, hope that’s okay,”

“Its fine, thanks guys,” Peter spoke up from beside Harley. He grabbed the older boy's hand and led him over to the couch then he sat down against the armrest, pulling Harley down next to him. Everybody got comfortable, distributed snacks about the room and then they started the film.

They were watching Lilo and Stitch as per MJ’s request. Nobody minded though as it was a great film and they hadn’t really seen it in a while. The first movie went by quickly full of laughs from odd comments and the rustling of packets. The second film was much the same, Harley easily fitted into the dynamic of the group, and the fact that they just accepted him meant a lot.

By the third film, Ned had fallen asleep and Peter wasn’t far off. His eyes were drooping shut more often than not. He shifted until he was comfortably laid against Harley. The breakfast Club played quietly in the background as Harley shifted to make sure Peter was as comfortable as possible, he lifted up his arm and wrapped it around the sleeping boy. He felt him wiggle impossibly closer then settle down, his breathing evened out then he was asleep. Harley smiled down at him fondly, the warmth against his side was inviting and he could feel himself wanting to drift off as well.

“You like him, don’t you?” MJ cut through the silence, having been watching the two boys interact all night.

“What?” Harley asks shocked.

“I'm not blind, I can see the way you two look at each other.” She said bluntly and Harley would have been shocked by it if Peter hadn’t explained that that’s just how she was.

“I don’t- I’m not-” Harley tries but he doesn’t even know what he’s trying to say. He doesn’t know what he feels towards Peter. He had never felt like his in Rosehill, so happy and free. Harley always looks forward to hanging out with Peter and even though they had an awful rocky start (which Harley will never not feel bad about) he’s so so glad that Peter forgave him and that they are friends. Everything thing about Peter is amazing, Harley knows that he cares for him and that makes him really happy. Does that mean he likes him?

“Maybe you’re not ready for it, but whatever is going on between you two, we won't care.” MJ tells him “Peter's been through a lot and he needs someone who’s gonna be there for him, and if that’s you then I’m happy for him,”

MJ’s right, he doesn’t even know what this is and maybe he isn’t quite ready for it. But it's not a bad thing, it doesn’t make him want to run away and hide like it used to, instead he feels safe. Peter makes him feel safe and Harley doesn’t want that to go away.

“But I swear to god, if you hurt him again, I'll hunt you down, not even going back to Tennessee could save you.” MJ threatened.

“Noted,” He says slightly scared “Thanks though.” He feels like he doesn’t have to elaborate, MJ understands what he means. And she does, sending a small smile Harley’s way then turning back to the tv.

Harley decides that it's too much effort to keep his eyes open anymore so he moves around on the couch till both him and Peter are laying down, then he slowly drifts to sleep, comforted by the smaller boy clinging to the side of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know nothing about motorbikes, don't come for me...  
> thank you so much for reading this chapter and i hope you enjoyed it!  
> the boys are so damn cute and things are finally developing  
> id love it if you left kudos or a comment they really encourage me to keep writing.   
> hope you are all staying happy and healthy, new chapter next monday <3


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley and Peter are soft, Peter is an idiot, Harley discovers a big secret and finally realises some important things.

Rays of sunlight filtered in through the curtains and illuminated the 4 teens, who were still sleeping soundly in Ned’s living room. Peter shifted around on the couch, slowly waking up from one of the best nights of sleep he’d had in a while. At first, he just lay there basking in the somewhat silent New York morning but then he noticed the heat that was pressed up against his back and the arms that were wrapped protectively around his waist.

 _Holy shit, I fell asleep on Harley_ Peter thought trying not to move too much so he didn’t disturb the boy sleeping next to him. He was honestly really comfortable and Harley wasn’t awake yet so there was no harm in shuffling in closer to him and falling back into a peaceful sleep.

It was at least another hour until anyone else in the house woke up. First, it was MJ who just stayed in the living room and read her book until the next person woke up, which was Ned. When he woke up he turned to MJ then gestured to the two boys cuddled up on the couch. 

“How long do you think its gonna take for them to actually get together,” Ned asked quietly considering the fact that Peter has super hearing, even when he’s sleeping.

“Ages, Peter is oblivious as fuck,” MJ answered while laughing slightly.

The two of them went to sit in the kitchen and eat breakfast while waiting for the boys to wake up. As soon as they left the room though, Harley stirred. His arm felt numb and he really needed to get up and pee but when he looked down he saw Peter still asleep next to him. His hair had gone slightly curly and it was covering most of his face, the urge to reach out his free hand and brush it out of the way was almost too strong to ignore.

He carefully tried to move his arm and get up without waking Peter but it was no use, as soon as he moved the younger boy shifted and slowly opened his eyes.

“Harley?” He asked his voice slurred slightly by sleep.

“Sorry darlin’ I didn’t mean to wake ya,” Harley apologised smiling softly at Peter.

“It’s okay,” Peter turns to face him properly, squinting his eyes because of the sunlight.

Harley would have been content in staying like this all morning if it wasn’t for the fact the ache in his arm was slowly growing worse and it this point if he didn’t go pee he might explode.

“Your gonna have to get off me Pete, I really need to get up,” Harley groaned.

“Oh god, I’m sorry!” Peter quickly moved from his comfortable space, letting Harley up.

“Thanks, darlin’,” Harley got up and left Peter alone on the couch, sleepy and blushing.

 _Harley let me sleep on him… we even cuddled!_ Peter's inner monologue was crazy at the moment and he couldn’t really make sense of the situation _Does that mean something? No, it can’t, it must just be friendly_ That conclusion made the most logical sense to Peter but he didn’t know why the thought of it not meaning anything to Harley made his heart hurt.

\--------------------

Something shifted between the boys after that. They were constantly close to each other craving the comfort that the other brought along. Family movie nights were full of cuddles and falling asleep on one another. Harley sat with Peter every lunch and they were constantly working in the lab together. They were practically joined at the hip.

But it never went further than that, neither boy made a move. Peter wasn’t even totally sure what it was that he felt towards Harley but more often than not he found himself daydreaming about what it would be like to hold his hand. Luckily, he was smart or he’d probably be failing all of his classes right now.

Weeks passed and the two of them were closer than ever, practically best friends (don’t tell Ned), and things were pretty good. After the whole fiasco in the canteen, Flash had pretty much left them alone obviously not wanted to get punched in the face again. Only sly remarks and glares in the hallway were given now and Peter could live with that.

School had been boring and uneventful today, they got set a new English project and he and Ned got to be partners which was awesome. Lunch was really chilled out, he helped Harley complete his chemistry homework and then the four of them spent the rest of the hour chatting about anything that came to mind.

Peter talked the whole car ride home, much to Happy’s dismay, because even though Harley had his own car Tony insisted that Happy picked both of the boys up, meaning that he had to endure Peters chatter. He’d never admit it to him but he didn’t really mind.

The car pulled up to the tower and the boys quickly ran out and shouted a quick goodbye to happy before entering the tower.

\--------------------

It was dark out now and Peter was crawling out of his bedroom window and swinging into the night. He patrols most evenings now and more often than not the night was uneventful. He most intercepted muggings and petty thefts and this night was no different.

The air was getting warmer now as summer came closer and Peter was currently swinging towards 52nd street where Karen said his help was needed. As he got closer he could hear the sounds of fighting. Two groups of people were standing on the corner of the street yelling back and forth angrily looking as if things were about to get physical.

Peter dropped down in the middle of them “hey guys! Why wasn’t I invited to your street party?”

A tall threatening guy steps forward and looks peter up and down before scowling at him “get out of here spider boy, this ain’t your fight to fix,”

“Aw come on, whys it gotta be a fight at all, we should all just learn to love each other!” Peter said obnoxiously but the sentiment fell on death ears as the shouting picked up again.

A few people were now properly fighting, punches being thrown, people knocked to the ground. Peter swung around and webbed people away from each other, restraining their hands so they couldn’t swing their arms and punch him or each other. But even with his spider-sense, he couldn’t keep up with everyone, at least half of them were webbed up but some bigger men were now more focused on getting Peter to get out of here.

Out of nowhere, a loud bang rang out, the ones who weren’t webbed up scattered, running away faster as a second shot was fired. Something was wrong but Peter didn’t realise what until he looked down and saw blood seeping through his suit.

“Oh fuck, oh shit,” He panicked to himself. He had been shot before but the shock never really goes away. The bullet had hit his upper thigh and from the looks of it, luckily had just missed the main artery but he needed to get it out before the skin healed over it. Peter did a once over of the area to make sure no one else was injured and then he webbed himself up and back towards the tower.

If he hadn’t of just been shot and was thinking more clearly, maybe he wouldn’t have crawled in through the living room window, maybe he wouldn’t have pulled his mask off as soon as he got into the tower but his head was hazy and his senses weren’t working right.

“Friday, get Tony,” He called out breathlessly. The events of the night finally catching up to him. He crouches over and lowers himself to the floor, not really thinking about the fact that blood was seeping into the carpet. 

He could hear faint footsteps coming towards the living room, he sighed in relief thinking it was Tony, but god was he wrong.

Harley rounds the corner dropping his phone in shock as soon as he laid his eyes on Peter hunched over on the floor. He stands there not really knowing what to do but then Tony rushes past him and into the room.

“Shit. Come on kid we’ve gotta get you down to the med bay.” Tony says calmly even though he’s freaking out on the inside because of all the blood coming out of Peter's leg.

“I’m sorry Tony, I was doing so well, hadn’t got hurt in ages, I didn’t mean to,” Peter rambled nonsensically.

“It’s okay, I’m not mad at you bambino. But we need to get you fixed up, so can you stand?” Tony asks.

“I don’t think so,” Peter tells him.

“Okay okay, Harley get over here and help me get Peter into the elevator,” Tony turns and faces the other boy who was still standing at the edge of the room.

“Harleys here?” Peter asked panicked.

Harley shakes himself out of his shock and walks over to peter, copying tony by putting an arm around him and taking some of Peter's weight.

“Uh yeah, I’m right here darlin’,” Harley says awkwardly still not over the fact that there was a lot of blood currently dripping down Peter’s leg.

“Fuck I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to find out like this,” Peter says not looking Harley in the eye.

“It's alright, I’m not mad. Just worried about you, that’s all.” Harley reaches over with his free hand to give Peters a reassuring squeeze as they step into the elevator.

“I’ll be fine, I’ve been shot before,” Peter says casually trying to ignore the searing pain in his thigh.

“That’s not reassuring at all Pete,” Tony chimes in as the elevator doors close.

\--------------------

It had been a few hours now and Harley hadn’t stopped worrying for a second. Dr. Cho got the bullet out fine and gave Peter a blood transfusion. He was doing okay, just sleeping. Harley hadn’t left Peter's side and was now just waiting for him to wake up. Tony was down in the lab fixing Peter’s suit for him, even though he said he won’t be going out on patrol for at least a week.

Harley looked over at Peter who was sound asleep on the bed. If it wasn’t for the fact Harley saw him literally bleeding out a couple of hours ago, he would look completely normal. But he had tubes going into his arms and wires connected to his body, they made Harley anxious. He didn’t like seeing peter in this state. _It could have been so much worse,_ Harley thought _what if he had died tonight?_

The door to Peter's room opened quietly and Pepper stepped through, holding a bottle of water and a cookie.

“How are you holding up?” She asked while handing them to Harley, he silently thanks her but does nothing more.

“How do you do it, Pepper?” Harley asks quietly.

“Do what, sweetheart?” she questioned, even though she could guess what he was asking.

“How can you not worry every second of the day, knowing that someone you care about could potentially die every time they go out?” He worried. He knew that spiderman did a lot of good but knowing that Peter was the one under the mask made him want to make sure that he never did that stuff again.

“I do worry, and that never goes away. But I learned to trust that they know what the are doing and all I can do is be there for them when they get back,” she tells him honestly.

“I don’t know what to do Pepper, I care about him so much and I want to keep him safe,” Harley stresses finally looking over at Pepper.

“I know you do but you can’t, not all the time. Talk with him when you wake up and explain how you feel, you’ll feel better off afterward.” Pepper advises him.

“But I don’t even know why I feel like this towards him,” Harley admits.

“I think you do, honey.” Pepper gives him a soft but understanding look and then gets up to leave the room.

And she’s right, Harley does know why. If he thinks about it he’s known why since the first time the boys woke up on Ned's couch together. Peter is honestly one of the most beautiful people he's ever seen, no matter if he was running on 2 hours sleep or if he was all dressed up because they had to go to one of Tony's stupid galas. He craved the comfort that Peter carried around with him, Harley wanted to be constantly close to the other boy. He wanted to hold his hand and them sleep in Harley's bed together. All of the shit that he never would have dreamed of when living in Rosehill. But with Peter, it was all okay because he liked him.

He really fucking liked Peter Parker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!  
> hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, id love to hear your thoughts on it so if you'd like to leave a comment that'd be great!  
> i think there is probably going to be twenty chapters in this story maybe a bit more but I know exactly where I want it to go and I'm looking forward to it, so I hope you guys are too  
> thank you so much for reading and I hope you are all staying happy and healthy <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter wakes up in the med bay, father-son bonding time, and some more revelations.

_He really fucking liked Peter Parker…_

While this revelation wasn’t a shocking one, Harley certainly didn’t know how he was gonna deal with it. Sure he’s liked people before but he’s never been allowed to express that, especially when it was a guy. His love always had to be silent and hidden but now it didn’t and he had a chance to get something he wanted for once. He thinks he has a chance, his and Peter's relationship didn’t start off the best but they have gotten a lot closer especially since Ned's sleepover. Harley felt like something had shifted and maybe Peter could like him back.

He'd feel like the luckiest guy in the world if that happened, Peter was just so perfect. His curly brown hair was amazingly soft and all he wanted to do was run his fingers through it. His eyes were just the right shade of brown, that they almost looked golden and he was small. Maybe not as small as some people but Harley was 6'4 so he towered over Peter and he loved it. He was always thinking about how adorable Peter would look in one of his sweaters, the neckline hanging off his shoulder, the sleeves swallowing up his hands. Harley wouldn't be able to keep his hands off him.

He was probably just getting his hopes up though, they had so much they needed to talk about and so much they still didn’t know about each other and this night just proves it.

Tony forced Harley to leave Peter's hospital room to eat something and take a nap but he couldn’t, he was just laying staring at the ceiling thinking about what has happened tonight. Admitting to himself that he liked Peter was big but so was the fact that Peter was Spider-man. He still couldn’t wrap his head round it, the fact that Peter who looked like he wouldn’t hurt a fly was out nightly webbing up bad guys and getting shot.

 _Oh god_ … _he got fucking shot!_

Here Harley is wondering whether he has a chance with Peter while he is down in the med bay with a bullet hole in his leg, could he be any more selfish?

\--------------------

A dull pain in his leg was what Peter first noticed as he woke up. He still felt float from the super-strength meds they had given him but he did remember what had happened. _Idiot_ he thought to himself while trying to sit up in the slightly uncomfortable bed.

It was at that moment that Tony came into his room when he noticed peter trying (struggling more like) to sit up in the bed.

“Woah, woah hey, take it easy kid,” Tony says rushing over to Peter’s side and helping him sit upright.

Peter swats away his hands “I can do it myself,” he grits out and sits up the rest of the way, positioning his pillow so he can lean on it comfortably.

Tony backed off slightly a sat down, still eyeing Peter warily from the end of the bed. He handed Peter a water bottle that he had brought in and he immediately drank all of it.

“Thanks,” he smiled up at Tony once he had finished drinking.

“No problem kid,” Tony said, “so how are you feeling?”

“I’m alright, I guess. My leg hurts a bit but I guess that’s expected for when you’ve been shot,” Peter laughed.

“You scared us all, you know that kid,” Tony admitted quietly.

Peter looked down at his lap feeling kinda guilty “sorry” he mumbled.

“Its fine bambino,” Tony reassured putting his hand on Peter's knee “It was Harley who was most shocked, I’m sort of used to it by now,”

 _Oh god_ … How could he have forgotten? How could he have been so reckless? Harley knows he’s Spider-man, this was going to change everything. And it had been going so well, they were so close and now who knows what is going to happen.

“Is he mad at me?” Peter asks quietly.

“God no, he’s just worried, Pete. That boy cares about you so damn much, it's honestly sickening.” Tony chuckles, running his thumb over Peter's knee in a calming fashion.

“Really?” He has to be sure that Harley isn’t going to hate him after this.

“Really, kid. He refused to leave your side so I had to get Pepper to force him to go and eat,” Tony smiled lightly at Peter “I don’t know what’s going on between you two but I can tell that you care about him a lot as well and this might sound stupid but whatever you guys have is special,”

Peter didn’t say anything for a while, thinking about what Tony had told him. ‘ _Whatever you guys have is special’_ but what did they have? They were best friends sure, but maybe it could be more, they had gotten a lot closer over the past weeks. Physical contact was never awkward, they were always hugging or Harley would wrap his arm around Peter's shoulder. They even held hands sometimes!

“I think,” Peter started nervously, “I think I like Harley… a lot,”

“I could have told you that kid,” Tony says unbothered, the normalness of it made Peter a lot less anxious “ You can like whoever the fuck you want and I’ll support you, always.”

“Thanks, Dad,” the term came out as if Peter had been calling Tony that for years, it felt normal. When he first met Tony, Peter worried that if he accepted Tony as a father figure then it would devalue or erase the relationship he had with Ben. But he knows that that isn’t the case, Ben had never been his dad. Even though Peter loved him so so much and would never trade and of the moments he had with May and Ben for his real parents, Tony was different. Tony was his dad and he was Tony’s son, there were no arguments about that. 

Tony was shocked at first, when he realised what Peter had said, but a warmth spread through his chest and everything in the world felt right. It didn’t matter that they were in a hospital room and Peter had been shot the night before. They were just Tony and Peter, father and son, spending time together. He had never gotten this from his dad, so he sure as hell wasn’t going to mess up with Peter.

“No problem kid,”

\--------------------

Peter was under strict instructions from Dr. Cho to take it easy so he was sat up in the penthouse living room, eating ice cream, and watching re-runs of old TV shows. His leg was up on a stack of pillows and after at least 30 minutes of worrying and making sure Peter wasn’t going to die, Pepper and Tony took Morgan to one of her playdates (Peter had stopped trying to remember who it was after the 8th friend). He was about to ask Friday to change the channel when Harley walked in. and sat down next to him.

“Hey darlin’, how you feeling?” He asks.

Peter blushes at the familiar pet name “I’m fine, I wish you would all stop worrying,”

“It's pretty hard not to worry about you know that I know you go out and get shot at every night,” Harley explains.

“Oh yeah, that…” Peter mumbles not looking at Harley. They haven’t really talked about the whole Peter being Spider-man thing and even though they saw it each other yesterday (Peter had to make sure that they were still okay despite the reassurances from Tony) the topic never came up.

“Yeah, _that,”_ Harley repeated.

“I’m sorry I never told you,” Peter said quietly still not making direct eye contact with the other boy.

“You don’t have to be sorry; I just want to know why; do you not trust me enough?” He asks, his eyes sad.

“No! it's not that at all. Of course, I trust you, its just we weren’t there and then when we were all I could think about was how much danger you’d be in if I told you.” Peter explains quickly, not wanting Harley to think that he was never going to tell him.

“I’m surrounded by superheroes and living in the safest building ever, how would I be in danger?” He doesn’t understand why Peter didn’t tell him, surely Ned and MJ know, so did he just not mean as much?

“You don’t get it though, everyone who has found out has been in danger. Ned was nearly killed in the Washington monument because of me. Some psychopath tracked down MJ and tried to kill her because she helped me figure out he was evil.” Peter rambles getting more and more worked up “Everyone gets hurt because of me,” Harley quickly moves and gathers Peter into his arms, running his hand through his curls hoping to calm him down a bit.

“Hey, hey, shhh,” He soothes quietly “I’m sorry darlin’ I didn’t mean to upset you,”

“It’s not because I don’t trust you,” Peter tries but Harley cuts him off.

“It’s okay, I know, I understand now,” Harley reassures, continuing to stroke his hand through the younger boy's hair. Peter lay his head against Harley’s chest and listened to his heartbeat, the continuous thumping calming his own. The two stayed like this for a while just enjoying each other’s company, not needing to say or do anything. It was nice and Peter wishes he could have this all the time, the calm that comes along with Harley was almost addictive.

Harley chuckles lightly and Peter feels the vibrations in his chest, he gently lifts his head and looks up at Harley “what?”

“I can’t believe you made me lower the speed on my bike so I wouldn’t get hurt while you go out in a spandex suit and fight bad guys,” Harley laughs lightly as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

Peter slaps his chest playfully and pouts “Don’t laugh! I’m sorry that I didn’t want you to die in some horrible motorcycle crash,”

“Its cute, you care about meeeee,” Harley teases.

“I do not, not anymore,” Peter says definitely and moves so he is facing away from Harley with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Aw come on darlin’ don’t be like that,” Harley complains acting hurt even though Peter can tell that he is laughing still. The younger boy just ignores him turning his head even further away.

“Fine I guess there is only one thing I can do,” Harley says matter of factly then before Peter can do anything he grabs his arms and starts tickling Peter’s sides.

“Omg Harley stop,” Peter says through laughs “Please, I’ll do anything,” Harley doesn’t let up though, just continues attacking Peter's sides. Peter manages to get his arms free and tries to push Harley off, not wanting to use his super strength and hurt him but knowing that if he wanted, he could easily push Harley away.

Harley notices Peter’s attempt at getting rid of him so he grabs the boy's wrists and pins them above his head. Peter’s breathing is heavy and it is the only sound for a while, both boys having noticed the position that Harley had put them in. Neither moves though, if Tony was to walk in right now he’d see Peter staring, wide-eyed at the boy above him. One of Harley’s arms is stretched forward causing his shirt to rise up slightly exposing the bottom of his abs. Peter’s eyes drift down and notice the exposed bit of skin before darting back up to Harley’s face.

Harley bright blue eyes stared deep into Peter's brown ones and before he could think better of it, he lent down, capturing Peter’s lips in a kiss. At first, Peter did nothing and Harley was about to pull away and apologise till the day he died but then he started kissing back, pushing up into Harley. The kiss was fast and messy but perfect at the same time. Eventually, they had to break away for air, Harley’s face broke out into a smile as he let go of Peter’s wrists. He sat back on the couch and watched as Peter moved into his lap, their faces only inches away from each other.

“Hi,” Peter whispers softly and smiling widely.

“Hey,” Harley whispers back, reaching up his hand to cup Peter's face and bringing him right back in for another kiss.

 _God,_ he could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! thank you so much for reading this chapter and i really hope you liked it <3  
> for those of you who actually read these notes, I'm so so sorry that there was no chapter last Monday. I was very much stressed out about school and results and I just didn't have the time or motivation to write. But all of that is over now and im going to go back to my weekly updates!  
> Please leave a comment telling me what you thought of this chapter i would appreciate it lots and lots  
> i hope you are all staying happy and healthy, and ill see you next Monday <3


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley and Peter are pretty cute and Tony is such a dad

Calloused hands carefully brush over blushed cheeks, limbs are entangled and eyes are full of love. Peter and Harley haven’t moved from their spot on the couch since their first kiss. Few words had been said, it wasn’t needed, all they needed was each other.

The TV was softly playing in the background as Peter pressed as close as he possibly could to Harley. He was still in the older boys lap, but now his back was against Harley's chest and their fingers were entangled. Every now and then Peter would glance up at Harley to find that he was already looking back at him with a soft smile on his face, it made Peter's heart flip and flutter in his chest. The feeling wasn’t something he’d ever experienced before and he should feel nervous but he doesn’t, Harley makes him feel safe. Safer than he’d felt in a while.

His eyes drifted back to the tv, the show from earlier was still on but Peter doesn’t much care. He shuffles back in Harley's lap and lays his head against the boy's chest, Harley's fingers thread through his curls in an affectionate way and Peter slowly starts to fall asleep.

\--------------------

Harley was on cloud nine right now. Logistically he knew that Peter hand him would have to talk about what they were but right now he was going to embrace it all. Having Peter in his lap like this was honestly too good to be true and he didn’t want to miss a second of it. He could still feel the faint pressure on his lips from when he and Peter were making out only minutes before. All he wanted to do was kiss him again but Peter seemed content in cuddling up to him so Harley just admired him for how.

His eyes traced the curves of Peter's lips, darted over his cheeks where he noticed slight freckles from the sun, the fluffy curliness of Peter's natural hair was splayed out over the boy's forehead. He had never looked more beautiful and when he cuddled into Harley further and laid his head against his chest Harley nearly died there and then.

Instead of dying, he ran his fingers through the curls affectionately and watched as Peter slowly start to fall asleep. He placed a soft kiss onto the boy's forehead and smiled.

“Sleep well darlin’.”

\--------------------

Harley must have fallen asleep himself at some point because he’s suddenly being woken up by an energetic Morgan jumping over him and Peter. He and Peter quickly shake themselves awake.

“Hey princess,” Harley laughs, grabbing Morgan and moving them both so she doesn’t accidentally jump on Peters bad leg. He was about to tell her to be a bit more careful when Tony ran in and beat him to it.

“Morgan! What did I tell you about climbing over Peter right now?!” he scolded making Morgan shrink back into Harley's arms and look guilty.

“I’m sorry daddy,” She says quietly.

“It’s okay Bambina, you just gotta watch out until he’s better.” He explains then walks back out of the room but not before sending a concerned dad look Peter’s way.

“I didn’t hurt you did I, Petey?” Morgan asks anxiously.

“Of course you didn’t Morguana,” Peter promises.

Morgan didn’t question it anymore and she was back to her happy bouncy self only seconds later. She told both boys all about her day sparing no detail. She and her friend had spent the afternoon painting and now one of her new paintings was placed proudly on the fridge (along with the dozens of other ones she had done).

She continued to ramble on, both boys chiming in when they felt appropriate, but eventually Pepper came to drag her off to have a bath. So now it was just Harley and Peter left in the living room. Peter moved back over to Harley curling into his side and smiling.

“Hey, darlin’?”

Peter made a mumbled noised of acknowledgement.

“We gonna talk about us?” Harley asks slightly nervously.

Peter looks up and blushes “I guess we should, shouldn’t we,”

“I really like you, darlin’,” Harley replies “If you hadn’t of guessed that already,”

Peter chuckles lightly, the blush on his cheeks spreading “I really like you too, Harley.”

“Well, I’m glad because if not what we were doing earlier would be a bit awkward,” He joked, all anxiety now gone from his body having been replaced by a constant mantra of _oh my god, he actually likes me._

“Shut up you idiot,” Peter laughs fondly and leans up to press a kiss against his lips. Harley smiles into it and pulls peter closer, never wanting to let go, but eventually they separate.

“Soooo,” Harley drawls.

“Soooo,” Peter mimics, even copying the southern accent.

Harley glares at Peter but there’s no bite behind it “what are we?”

“Well, what do you want to be?” Peter asks, lightly teasing because he feels like he already knows the answer.

“I think you already know darlin’,” He says, catching on to Peter's teasing

“I don’t know anything,” Peter tries to keep the smile off his face but he’s honestly so happy right now, he doesn’t think he’ll ever stop smiling.

“Fine then,” Harley says before straightening up and putting on a face of faux seriousness, “Peter Benjamin Parker, would you do me the honour of becoming my boyfriend?”

Peter’s smile gets impossibly wider “of course I will,”

Harley leans down and kisses Peter again. _First kiss as boyfriends_ he thought and smiled internally when it was followed with _oh my god we are boyfriends!_ They stay like this for a little while, invading each other’s space and praying that no one walks in. When they do break apart neither of them can stop smiling, even for a second.

“Are we gonna tell everyone?” Peter asks.

“Not yet,” Harley tells him “I wanna keep you for myself for a little while,”

“I’m already yours dumbass,”

\--------------------

“Peter Benjamin Parker if you don’t sit your ass down on that couch and rest I’m going to physically strap you to it!”

Peter froze, his hand resting on the kitchen cabinet _fuck._ All he wanted was to get a snack but Tony had been watching him like a hawk all evening. _This dad thing has gotten to his head already._ Slowly Peter lowered his hand and turned round to face a disapproving Tony Stark.

Tony stood there with his arms crossed, staring at Peter, trying to get across his disapproval of the fact Peter was up and moving.

“You’re supposed to be resting kid,” He pointed out, and that was true Dr Cho had told him not to move around a lot as the bullet had just hit some of the ligaments that join his thigh and torso if he wasn’t careful it might heal wrong.

“I just wanted a snack!” Peter whines.

“You could have asked me or Harley,” Tony says.

“Harleys busy,” Peter said with a pout on his face. After he and Harley talked earlier they stayed on the couch for a little while longer but then he went to call his mum and sister. So, Peter had been moping on the couch for the past hour.

“Come on kid, get your snack and get back to the couch,”

“But dad! it’s so boringggggg,” he groans.

“Pete,” Tony sighed “you know what Cho said, you don’t want to limp for the rest of your life, do you?”

“No,” Peter grumbled, grabbing the sour patch kids out of the cupboard and stomping (as angrily he could with a bullet wound in his hip) back into the front room. Tony laughed and ruffled his hair as Peter walked past.

“How about we have a movie night tonight?” Tony suggested, “would that cheer you up?”

Peter paused and slowly looked round “can we watch Star Wars?” he asked slowly.

Tony groaned in protest “if we must,” but Peter knew that he’d let him watch it over and over if it made him happy.

“Yes! Okay! Thank you!” he rambled all at once and ran off down the hallway presumably to change into his pyjamas.

“Peter!” Tony yelled after him

“Sorry!” Peter shouted back and Tony could hear his footsteps slow down

 _That kids gonna give me grey hairs_ he thought though a fond smile overtook his face.

\--------------------

The lights in the living room were dim and Return of the Jedi was playing quietly on the TV. Tony and Pepper were sat on one of the love seats while Peter and Harley were spread out together on the couch. They didn’t really have to worry about cuddling around the rest of the family they were used to it by now.

Peter felt really happy. He had a boyfriend, a fucking boyfriend! How amazing was that? He couldn’t wait till their first date. They had talked about it for a bit earlier and had decided that they were gonna go out this Saturday as Peter would have pretty much healed up. Harley was planning it though so he had no idea where they were going.

The bowls of popcorn that Pepper had made were nearly gone and Peter threw some of the last kernels at the TV as Darth Vader dodged yet another of Luke’s attacks but cheered when Luke cut off his hand. Harley chuckled at him and smiled when Peter looked over his shoulder and their eyes met.

“Hey,” Peter whispered.

“Hi darlin’,” Harley says softly and he pulls Peter closer to him, one hand on his waist and carding through his curls.

Peter let out a pleased hum and rests his head against Harley's chest, which was quickly becoming one of peters favourite things. He loved listening to Harley’s heartbeat close up even though he could now pick it out from two rooms away. His chest was also really comfortable despite the fact Peter knew he had some serious abs. He deduced that after many hours of staring at Harley in the lab.

He looked over at Pepper and Tony who were both watching the film intently even though they had seen it many times before. Peter couldn’t stop a wide smile overtaking his face and his chest filled with a fond, warm feeling. He had a family, a real family.

After May died, during the months he spent living in that storage room, he would wonder if he was ever going to have a home again. A real home where he would feel safe and loved. He wanted a family who could hold him while he cried and laugh with him when he was happy. And now sitting here; against Harley, with Morgan sleeping softly in the next room and Pepper and Tony only a few steps away, he thought about how lucky he was to get another chance at having a real family, who loved him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! thank you so much for reading <3  
> everything in this chapter was so wholesome and i loved writing it.  
> if you'd like to please leave a comment below telling me what you thought or any suggestions you have, it makes me so happy reading them all.  
> thank you again for reading and i hope you enjoyed the chapter  
> stay happy and healthy friends <3  
> (also if you notice any mistakes I've made please let me know in a nice way, I've nobody else to read this but me and sometimes i miss things, thanks <3)


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper knows (she always does), Harley cant focus without peter and the two boys go on a date

Waking up at 7:30 was not what Harley wanted to do this Monday morning.

After movie night, Pepper and Tony went straight to bed leaving Harley on the couch with Peter asleep against his shoulder. Harley tried to wake him up but the other boy just whined and moved closer to him. So Harley didn’t have any other choice but to gently pick the younger boy up and carried him to his room.

He never quite made it there though, halfway down the hallway he decided that he was way too tired to walk the rest of the way to Peter’s room and just took them both into his own room.

That’s how they ended up like this, Peter sleeping against Harley's chests as he tries to stay in bed that little bit longer. But eventually he had to get up otherwise he would end up being late. Harley slowly moved out from under Peter, the cold morning air hitting him immediately and making Harley want to get right back into his bed. But he couldn’t, he stood up and stretched while yawning loudly. Then grabbed his clothes for the day and went into the en-suite for a shower.

Peter was still asleep when he got out the shower so he gave him a chaste kiss on the forehead, whispered a goodbye and quietly walked out of the room. Harley checked the time on his phone, cursing and hurrying up when he realised that he only had 40 minuets to get to school.

Pepper, Tony and Morgan were sitting at the island in the kitchen island eating breakfast when Harley rushed in and grabbed some toast off Tony’s plate.

“Hey!” Tony complained

“Sorry old man but I’m running late,” Harley explained while searching around for his school bag. He let out a small _Ah ha!_ When he found it and ran towards the elevator. “bye guys!”

“Goodbye, Harley,” and “Bye Harls!” from Pepper and Morgan followed after him, while Tony stayed sulking over his lost toast.

“Oh yeah! Pete is in my room sleeping by the way,” Harley called out and then the elevator doors closed and he made his way out the building.

Pepper snorts lightly and turns to Tony “I wonder how long it’ll take for them to tell us,”

Morgan perks up “tell us what!?”

Tony looks like he’s trying to figure something out but gives up “yeah, tell us what!?”

\--------------------

“Mr Keener?” The teacher called out for the 3rd time before Harley finally registered it.

“Ah sorry what was the question?” he asked sheepishly.

“I asked what the formula is for Kinetic energy?” Mr Bordwell asks unenthusiastically, seeming like he wasn’t the only one who wanted this school day to end.

“It's half times mass times velocity squared,” Harley answered, not really sure why they were going over this physics topic again but oh well.

“Thank you, try pay more attention next time Harley,”

“Yes sir,” Harley says and he really does try but every time his mind wanders off to Peter and their date on Saturday. He honestly could not wait, he’s not been on a date in a while, especially with someone he really liked. Harley didn’t want to fuck this up, not again, so he’s planned it all out perfectly. He was going to take Peter too the zoo.

Yeah, that might sound a bit lame but he knew that Peter would love it. The younger boy had been raving all week about the new red pandas that had just moved there, so It was perfect really.

He spent the rest of physics daydreaming, luckily he knew all of this already and not paying attention doesn’t matter too much for him. He gathered all his stuff and made his way into the cafeteria. There usual table was empty at the moment so Ned and MJ must not be out of their lesson yet. They were all quite lucky to have the same lunch period.

It didn’t take long before MJ was joined Harley “What the hell is up with you today?” she asks.

“What do you mean?”

“You have been off in some other world all day,” She points out.

“What? No I haven’t,” He laughs.

“You really have,” She deadpanned “it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that Peter isn’t in today does it?”

Harley is really glad that he doesn’t really blush because otherwise his face would be very red right now, “Shut up MJ.”

She doesn’t say anything else, just laughs knowingly and starts up a new conversation, which Harley is glad for. They’ll tell Ned and MJ eventually but just not yet.

\--------------------

Saturday couldn’t come soon enough, yet when it finally arrived Peter was full of nerves. His leg was finally healed enough that he was allowed to walk around on it, Dr Cho even said he should.

He was currently, sifting through his wardrobe trying to find the best outfit he could. The weather was getting warmer and the only thing Harley had told him about the date was that it was mostly outdoors and pretty casual. So it might be an understatement to say he was only slightly panicking.

After another 10 minutes of him pulling out shirts and putting them back in frustration, he settled on a pair of skinny light wash jeans and one of his many graphic t-shirts. Peter tried and failed to tame his hair so he just left it in a curly mop. He grabbed he converse, that Tony had tried to replace multiple times but Peter wouldn’t let him and left his room to meet Harley in the living room.

Harley was lounging on the couch when Peter walked in, he was wearing a pair of light wash Levi’s jeans, with a white shirt that stretched across his chest perfectly to show off his abs and also his leather jacket. Peter didn’t think he’d ever get used to how attractive he found Harley.

“Hey darlin, you look nice,” Harley greeted and complemented him once he had noticed that Peter come into the room.

Peters cheeks flushed red “thanks,” he mumbled a smile gracing his face “you look really good too,”

“Do I now?” Harley teased, “I sure am glad my boyfriend finds me attractive,”

“Shut up Harley,” Peter laughs.

“We should probably leave now if we want to avoid the rush hour traffic,” Harley told him and Peter was pretty sure that he heard him mumble something like _when isn’t it rush hour here_ while he was grabbing his car keys. Peter laughed and took Harleys hand. He led them towards the elevator and pressed the button for the garage.

It didn’t take them long to get down there and on the road. Harley had one hand on the wheel and one hand on Peter's thigh and even though Peter complained about it not being safe, he secretly liked it. Harley's hands were big and they covered nearly all of his knee, it was grounding.

“Sooooooo,” Peter started, leaning over the centre console towards Harley “are you gonna tell me where we are going yet?”

“No, because then it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it, darlin’?” Harley pointed out, laughing at the pout Peter pulled after Harley declined him again.

“Well will you at least tell me how long its gonna take to get there?”

“It’ll take us about an hour, less if you’d let me break some of the speed laws.” Harley joked.

“Harley!” Peter exclaimed which set the older boy off into a fit of laughter “that’s not funny,”

“I was only joking darlin’,” he reassured him, still laughing.

The rest of the drive was full of odd conversation and Bruce Springsteen’s voice quietly floating out of the speakers. Though, Peter had spent the majority of the drive staring at Harley. His hair was pushed back and some of it naturally fell in front of his face, framing it perfectly. His eyes were light and happy, happier than he looked a couple months ago and Peter loved that. There was a soft smile on his face as he drummed his fingers against the steering wheel and sang along to Glory Days.

They turned a corner into a big car park, Peter looked around then realised where they were, “oh my god!” he gasped and turned excitedly toward Harley who was currently trying to reverse into a parking space.

“Nice surprise?” He asked after he had parked properly.

“Harley, this is the best surprise! I can believe you've taken me to the zoo, I haven’t been here since I was little! you know they have a new red panda exhibit right?” Peter rambled excitedly.

“Yeah I know sweetheart,” Harley chuckled fondly, he knew because peter had gone on about it for ages, which was exactly why he decided to take him here.

Peter blushed and went quiet “That’s new,”

“What’s new?”

“Sweetheart,” Peter said quietly, still blushing.

“Oh do you not like it? I call you darlin’ all the time so I thought it would be okay,” Harley asked worriedly.

“No no, it’s nice! I promise.” Peter reassured him, then added, “I didn’t really think you calling me darling meant anything because you call everyone that,”

Harley looked confused for a second before it dawned on him, he’d said that to Peter that day he left him alone in that café. God he still felt horrible about that.

“You remember when I told you that sweetheart?” Harley asked, and Peter nodded a little confused about why Harley was bringing it up “Well, it wasn’t entirely true,”

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“I lied to you darlin’, I barely call anyone else it, I’m not even sure why I started saying it to you,” he admitted quietly, “so maybe that’s why I told you that I call everyone darlin, because I didn’t want you to know that I felt something for you.”

Peter smiled at him softly. Even though what Harley had said hurt him at the time, it made sense. He knew about Harley's past experiences with boys and they weren't exactly on the best terms when he moved in so he really couldn’t blame him for what he said.

“Harls,” Peter said lovingly.

“I’m sorry, didn’t mean to upset you,”

“I’ve already forgiven you babe,” Peter laughs and takes Harley's face into his hand, stroking his thumb gently against his cheek, then leaning in and giving him a soft kiss. “Now come on, lets go see some animals!”

\--------------------

Peter excitedly dragged Harley through the entrance and grabbed a map and started pointing at all the places he wanted to go, which was basically everywhere, but Harley wasn’t going to stop him. He bounced around like an excited puppy, telling Harley little facts about each animal they came across

“Did you know that koalas can sleep for 22 hours a day?”

“Otters hold hands while they sleep so they don’t float away from each other, isn’t that adorable!”

“Polar bears skin is actually black, we just can’t see it because their fur is so thick,”

“You know I don’t know how you retain all this knowledge,” Harley told him when they were sitting down for a break.

They had been at the zoo for about an hour now. It wasn’t too busy so they were able to get through most things without any hassle. They had seen loads of animals that Peter wanted to see and some that Harley had wanted too, but they had also seen ones that Harley hadn’t wanted too. Peter lead him through the arachnid exhibition, and Harley felt like his skin was crawling the entire time. Peter thought it was extremely funny as he was part spider, Harley was not amused though and let out a huge breath of relief when they finally left the room. 

“I don’t really know either to be honest, my brain is a bit like a sponge,” He laughed, taking another lick from the ice cream Harley had just bought him.

Harley lets out a loud laugh then goes to put his rubbish in the bin, when he gets back he held out his hand for Peter to take “So where to next darlin’?”

“Well we still have the elephants and the sea lions to see, Oh and also the red-” Peter paused and gasped, Harley was about to ask what was wrong then Peter grabbed his arm and exclaimed “the red pandas Harley! We haven’t seen the red pandas yet,” he started pulling Harley in the direction that the map said to go.

“Careful Pete, your gonna pull my arm off,” Harley laughed, finding his boyfriends enthusiasm endearing rather than annoying.

“Sorry Harls,” He said bashfully and loosened his grip a little bit.

When they got to the enclosure Peter ran straight up to the gate where two of the red pandas were rolling around, playing together.

“Oh Harley look how cute they are!” Peter whispered, as if he was being careful not to let his voice disturb them.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cute sweetheart,” He said distractedly because in all honesty he wasn’t paying attention to the animals, just Peter.

Unfortunately, Peter picked up on this “you’re not even looking Harley! You’re just staring at me-” he paused for a second “Omg that’s so cheesy Harley!” He laughed.

“I can’t help it, your just too cute” Harley came up behind Peter and wrapped his arms around the other boys waist, he chuckled and pressed a soft kiss to Peter’s cheek. It was strange being affectionate out in public and Harley thought he wouldn’t be able to do it. Maybe it’s because there weren’t that many people round to see, or maybe it’s because it didn’t matter anymore, nothing mattered as long as Peter was by his side.

“Thank you for taking me here,” Peter said softly, leaning back into Harleys arm while continuing to awe at the little animals running around.

“You’re welcome darlin, though really, I should be thanking you for agreeing to come out with me,” Harley laughed, leaning down to give Peter another kiss.

Peter was smiling so wide and his heart felt like it was going to explode. Today was definitely going down as one of his favourite days ever.

He pulled out his phone and gets Harley and him to turn round so the red pandas were next to them. Peter tells Harley to smile (which he didn’t really have to do because Harley had had a nonstop smile in his face this entire day) and then he snaps a picture of the two of them, freezing the perfect moment in time, both their faces full of happiness and love.

\--------------------

Peter fell asleep on the drive home, a red panda plushie clutched in his arms and the picture of him and Harley set as his new lock screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> i know its been a while and I'm so so sorry it has taken so long for this chapter to come out.  
> I meant to finish it last week but I've been over run with school work  
> thank you for being so patient with me and i hope you all enjoyed this chapter  
> feel free to leave kudos or a comment telling me what you thought of it, i really appreciate them!  
> i hope you are all staying happy and healthy <3

**Author's Note:**

> hey! quarantines got me bored as fuck so I decided to write this  
> hope you guys like it and feel free to leave a comment or kudos if you want  
> also, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes. I did read it like 4 times but dyslexia is a bitch 
> 
> I'm gonna try to update this weekly :)


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